Learning and the Brain

Learning and the Structure of Thought: From Developing Brains to the Evolution of Knowledge (in progress), by A. P. Laks

The aim of this book was initially to explore and articulate the neurophysical bases of learning in order to design and construct more effective instructional systems. But with deeper delving into the current neuroscientific literature, it became apparent that a more fundamental and wide-ranging, interdisciplinary exposition was called for.

Most so-called "learning theories" are presented as unrelated to each other and focussed on modern educational settings. In contrast, Learning and the Structure of Thought presents a general, empirically based theory of learning that incorporates current educational models as special cases and with multidisciplinary foundations in sociocultural studies, linguistics and biology. The aim of this work is to formulate a scientifically sound general theory of learning based on the most recent research in neuroscience, inasmuch as the brain is the physical locus of learning. The outcome has been a study that holds some significant implications for a number of disciplines, including neuroscience.

This work takes a systems approach to analyzing brain functioning, using the wealth of neuroimaging studies conducted over the past two decades. The approach taken is not from the classical (linear) perspective of information "transfer" but from a developmental perspective that maps the progressive construction of interrelated neuronal (processing and representational) functions across the brain as a systemic (and non-linear) whole. The biophysically based theory introduced in Learning and the Structure of Thought views learning as an adaptive function mediated (and structured) by the complex processes of the brain. The special case of humans is analyzed from an evolutionary perspective in terms of the cumulative construction of specific neurosystemic functions and our ability to externalize and maintain knowledge culturally in symbolic forms.

At the broadest (whole-brain) level, the (mammalian) brain system is seen to be structurally homologous to the form of "universal" syntax that underlies all human languages. This relationship is found to shape the general structure of our knowledge both individually and culturally. At a finer level of detail, the neurocognitive function that distinguishes modern humans is found by way of mapping our ("metareferential") perspective-shifting abilities and the development of so-called "theory-of-mind" in four-year-olds. This neurocognitive subsystem is seen to mediate our ability to represent knowledge externally and maintain it culturally in the form of narratives. Detailed analysis of the paleoanthropological record indicates that this metacognitive, story-telling capability evolved as a resource-securing adaptation with Homo sapiens some 200,000 years ago.

This interdisciplinary work builds upon and integrates aspects of cognitive neuroscience, linguistics, human and animal culture studies, and evolutionary anthropology. Throughout, the focus is on the learner as an individual in systemic (and ecosystemic) relation to the environment, resources, people, culture and the surrounding knowledge base. This methodology provides insights into issues currently facing those related disciplines, and hence the book would be useful as a supplementary text for both researchers and students of those subjects. The work also offers some key insights into the study of epistemology (including the epistemology of science) and the nature of consciousness.

The principal audience for this book includes anyone interested in better understanding the nature of learning: intelligent laypersons, educators, trainers, instructional designers and researchers, as well as, trainee teachers for whom it could be used as the basis for courses on the science of learning.

Contents In Brief

Part I: Learning in Neurophysical Systems

The Nature of Learning

Memory and the Contextualization of Experience

Learning and Directed Action

Affect, Motivation and Valuation

Development of Some Neurocognitive Functions

Representing Self and Other

Part II: The Ecology of Knowledge

Knowledge and Its Shareability

Internalizing and Externalizing Cultural Knowledge

Metainterpretation and Sociocultural Modelling

Biological Roots of Human Society

Evolutionary History of the Hominoid Brain

Part III: Evolution and Narrative

The Human Evolutionary Context

Early Hominins and the Australopithecines

Genesis of the Genus Homo

Homo Unbound

The Evolution of Protolanguage

Archaic Humans

Homo Sapiens and the Accumulation of Culture

Dispersing from Africa

Beringia and the Americas

Western Eurasia

Emergence of the Neolithic in Southwest Asia

The Institutionalization of Knowledge in Southwest Asia

Part IV: Further Applications

Epistemology of Science

Consciousness

Human Morality

Some Instructional Implications

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