EDUC 5233 - Educational Psychology II
Text: Sousa, D. A. (Ed.), (2010). Mind, brain, & education: Neuroscience implications for the
classroom.
Table of Contents:
Chpt. One: How science met technology
Chpt. Two: Neuroimaging tools and the evolution of educational neuroscience
Chpt. Three: The current impact of neuroscience on teaching and learning
Chpt. Four: The role of emotion and skilled intuition in learning
Chpt. Five: The Speaking brain
Chpt. Six: The Reading brain
Chpt. Seven: Constructing a reading brain
Chpt. Eight: The mathematical brain
Chpt. Nine: The calculating brain
Chpt. Ten: The computing brain
Chpt. Eleven: The creative-artistic brain
Chpt. Twelve: The future of educational neuroscience
Course Topics
Introduction - Educational neuroscience is a legitimate scientific area of study that overlaps
psychology, neuroscience and pedagogy. [See diagram – p. 2]
[ See Fig. 1.2 and Fig 1.3 Diagrams of the Brain ]
Chpt 1 – How Science Met Pedagogy
A. Technology used to study the living brain:
i. CAT Scan – 1970s
ii. MRI – 1980s
iii. PET Scan – 1970s
iv. fMRI – 1990s
B. Professional Development
i. Learning Styles – Dunn & Dunn 1970s
ii. Multiple Intelligences – Gardner 1980s
iii. Triarchic theory of Intelligence – Sternberg 1980s
iv. Emotional Intelligence – Goleman 1990s
v. Neurogenesis – Kempermann & Gage 2000s
vi. Neuroplasticity – Shaywitz 2000s, Simos et al 2000s
vii. Memory Levels and Learning – Sousa 2000s
Chpt 2 - Neuroimaging – Evolution of Educational
Neuroscience
A. We now understand that executive functions of the brain ‘connect’ activities among
various areas that deal with specific activities.
B. We now realize that at an early age (6-10 months), during language development,
phoneme discrimination becomes more language-specific (English, Mandarin). This
impacts a child’s capacity to learn a second language. NOTE: Interesting finding that
human social interactions impact phoneme discrimination differently than audiovideo recordings do.
C. Although most of the neural networks are common to all people, their efficiency
varies, partly due to genetic variations. The expression of these genetic variations is
influenced by experience. There is evidence that aspects of the culture in which
children are raised can influence the way in which genes shape neural networks –
ultimately influencing child behaviour. Example: The major development of the
executive function occurs between four and seven years of age. Training on conflict
management during that period produced improved conflict resolution skills as
compared to other training techniques. Similarly, working memory training tasks and
meditation produced improved students’ attention in classrooms where they were
provided. This means that this type of attention training could be beneficial for
students who have poorer initial efficiency. [i.e – some forms of attention can be
taught.]
D. Studies in early education show that, with practice the connectivity between brain
areas is strengthened, and tasks can be carried out more efficiently.
Activity: Choose one of these statements and examine its potential impact on the teaching-learning
process in your classroom.
Chpt 3 - Impact of Neuroscience on Teaching and Learning
A. Proper learning behaviour is no longer defined by students sitting quietly, doing exactly
what they are told without question or discussion, and reporting back memorized facts
on tests. The work of Vygotsky on the zone of proximal development (ZPD) and Krashen
on reducing the negative effects of stress on learning and the practice of individualizing
instruction are supported by our current understanding of how the brain operates
during learning experiences.
B. We can learn a lot about motivation, intrinsic rewards, and ZPD from popular computer
games.
C. Krashen’s ‘affective filter’ helps us understand the neurological impact of stress and
emotion on brain functions during the learning process.
D. We cannot learn anything that is not recognized by our brains. The role of the reticular
activating system (RAS) is the basis upon which all our lessons should be planned.
E. Dopamine is a learning-friendly neurotransmitter. It promotes motivation, enhances
memory, and provides focus as well as making us feel good. Dopamine production can
be activated by certain environmental influences and teaching strategies.
F. Dopamine ‘drop’ occurs when a student experience the negative emotions related to
making a mistake. Effective and frequent formative assessments can reduce the fear of
making mistakes.
G. Neuroplasticity and pattern-based memory provide us with the basis to choose effective
teaching strategies. Understanding these two concepts is fundamental when planning
lessons that will enhance student learning.
H. Intelligence is not a fixed capacity – it can be increased by making our brains’ neural
networks stronger, more efficient, accessible, and durable. Teachers who collaborate in
‘learning communities’ can help students become more intelligent.
Activity: Choose one of these statements and examine its potential impact on the teachinglearning process in your classroom.
Chpt 4 - Role of Emotion and Skilled Intuition in Learning
A. The message from social and affective neuroscience is clear: no longer can we think of
learning as separate from or disrupted by emotion… building academic knowledge
involves integrating emotion and cognition in social context.
B. The learners’ emotional reaction to the outcome of their efforts consciously or
nonconsciously shapes their future behaviour. Therefore efficient learners build useful
and relevant intuitions that guide their thinking and decision making. These intuitions
are not randomly generated, they are shaped and organized by experience and are
specific and relevant to the particular context in which they were learned.
C. Relevant intuitions and emotional learning is enhanced when teachers foster emotional
connection to the material students are learning. One way is to offer students a choice
of how they will learn the material (writing/performing a play, doing a research report,
designing a model). Another is to assign open-ended problems that create space for
emotional reactions.
D. Intuition can be understood as the incorporation of the nonconscious emotional signals
into knowledge acquisition. Building curricular opportunities for students to develop
skilled intuitions is therefore a meta-learning process.
E. We must actively manage the social and emotional climate of the classroom. Students
will allow themselves to experience failure only if they can do so within an atmosphere
of trust and respect.
F. Critical thinking requires students to use intuition and emotional signals to know how,
when, and why to use the new knowledge they have acquired.
Chpt 5 - The Speaking Brain
Much of what we often believe is true about how the brain enables human speech was
discovered in the mid 1800’s using negative reasoning (i.e. - If a part of the brain was injured
and the patient lost an ability/function then that part of the brain was the part responsible for
that function).
Pierre Broca –
1865
Broca’s area
enables us to
speak.
Carl Wernicke –
1875
Wernicke’s area
enables us to
understand
language.
Also on the left side of the brain we find the arcuate fasciculus, a large bundle of nerves that
connects Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas, and makes it possible for us to communicate using
language. The direct and synchronized connection between these two areas makes rapid back
and forth conversation possible. Broca’s area also seems to be involved in some semantic and
working memory processes – providing coordination and integration or neural information
from other language processing areas of the brain (see Fig. 1)
Figure 1. – Process Functions and Locations of the Brain
Brain Area
Process
Right middle and superior temporal
Bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal
Left inferior frontal-left anterior temporal
Bilateral medial frontal/posterior right
temporal/parietal
Left dominant, bilateral intraparietal sulcus
Prefrontal cortex, parietal lobes
Understanding semantics
Monitoring coherence
Integrating text
Interpreting the perspective of the agent or
actor
Imaging spatial information
Working memory – holding language while
other processes are performed
Episodic memory – recalling an experience
Medial temporal lobe, prefrontal regions,
parietal lobe
Temporal and frontal lobes
Word processing & grammatical processing
Lateral dominance of the brain’s left hemisphere for language processing has been supported
by modern structural and functional image studies. For most people the left side of the brain
controls language (96% of right handed and 76% of left handed people).
The knowledge of and competence for human language is acquired through
various means and modality types. Linguists regard speaking, signing, and
language comprehension as primary faculties of language, i.e., innate or
inherent and biologically determined, whereas they regard reading and
writing as secondary abilities. Indeed, the native or first language (L1) is
acquired during the first years of life through such primary faculties while
children are rapidly expanding their linguistic knowledge (2). In contrast,
reading and writing are learned with much conscious effort and repetition,
usually at school.
Speech in infants develops from babbling at around 6 to 8 months of age, to
the one-word stage at 10 to 12 months, and then to the two-word stage
around 2 years. Note that sign systems are spontaneously acquired by both
deaf and hearing infants in a similar developmental course. Speech
perception and even grammatical knowledge develops much earlier, within
the first months after birth. (Sakai, 2005)1
At school age typically developing children were assumed to have a fully developed spoken
language system that could serve as the basis for learning to read and write. This being said,
speech and language processing are only part of the cognitive demands placed on the brain
when children are in school. If cognitive resources are being spent on other competing
processes, children may not have optimal capacity to understand and produce spoken language
(e.g. – listening to the teacher and making notes at the same time OR processing feelings of fear
or sadness while being expected to speak.)
Language and the Right Hemisphere
Although the left hemisphere is the dominant one for language, the right hemisphere is also
involved. It has long been seen as responsible for understanding and producing prosody, the
intonational and emotional aspects of spoken language. While prosodic elements contribute
essential information to verbal communication, they are not considered to be language in the
same sense as phonological (related to the sounds of speech), semantic (related to the meaning
of words) and syntactical (related to the grammatical arrangement of words) elements of
language. The right hemisphere is also involved in interpreting humor and metaphors, making
inferences, understanding sarcasm or irony, and comprehending discourse. The right
hemisphere may also assist in understanding more demanding semantic tasks such as when
words are only distantly related, being used to imply a meaning other than the literal ones, or
have two very different meanings. This makes the right hemisphere essential when we draw
inferences from our experiences. While language is predominantly left hemisphere function,
both hemispheres are necessary for a fully functioning, flexible spoken language system. Our
ability to examine the brain using fMRI technology is also challenging previously believed
knowledge on how speech and language develop.
Sakai, K. L (2005) Language Acquisition and Brain Development , downloaded on Dec 22,2014
from www.sciencemag.org SCIENCE VOL 310 4 NOVEMBER 2005
1
Speech and Language Development
Behavioural information gathered in the past led us to believe that, by school age, children
were able to clearly produce most speech sounds, had mastered basic grammatical aspects of
spoken language, and acquired a sufficient lexicon to talk about various concrete and abstract
experiences. Having learned language, they were now ready to use language as a vehicle to
expand their learning across the curriculum.
We now know that behaviour measures are not exact measures of brain function, and may
even lead to incorrect conclusions about brain function. We know that not all children come to
school with fully developed speech and language, ready to use these skills for reading, writing,
and oral expression. Even older children vary in their capacity to understand and use higher
order or more abstract language. During school years children are exposed to experiences that
change the brain’s structures and functions. The brain develops in response to the
environmental input it receives. Although genetics plays an important role, there are
differences in the rate at which the development of brain processes occurs.
We also know that even if children are behaviourally performing in the same way as adults,
they have different neural patterns that may reflect the use of different cognitive strategies.
Children’s brains work harder than adult’s brains to accomplish the same behavioural result.
This is especially true of boys because it appears that boys do not convert sensory information
to language as easily as girls do. Not all performance is gender based though, language skills are
determined by a child’s genetic make-up and the amount of time and effort spent on practice
and development of those skills. Not all children are capable of the same level of verbal
expression; some are verbally fluent while others struggle to put their thoughts into words.
Differences in language skills are not related to innate intelligence or motivation; rather they
are related to individual differences in brain development. Being slower does not necessarily
mean that a child knows or understands less; it simply means that the child needs more time to
express what he or she knows.
Bilingualism
Mastering two languages has traditionally been seen as an age-related issue. Behavioural
studies showed that young children who were exposed to two languages before the age of
seven developed proficiency in both languages. Brain imaging studies now show that bilingual
adults who were exposed to two languages before age five actually process their languages in
overlapping brain areas – the same areas that monolingual children use. Bilinguals who learn
their second language later appear to use different strategies. Their brains function in a more
bilateral manner with more distributive activation in the frontal lobe, in areas thought to
represent working memory and inhibitory processes. This pattern of activation is thought to be
consistent with greater cognitive effort and less automatic processing. It seems that the most
efficient use of neural resources occurs when language learning happens early.
Neuroplasticity
Previous beliefs about the brain being fully formed at birth have been proven incorrect. Both
the structures and functions of brain cells have been proven to change during one’s life. This
plasticity is greatest in the earliest years of life. Even in adolescence language networks interact
with other cortical resources, such as memory, and thereby change the brain’s structures and
functions. New neurons are created in the hippocampus, a process that impacts the formation
of memories. The frontal lobe continues to develop thorough early adulthood, making it
possible for adolescents to develop metacognitive and metalinguistic skills. This enables
adolescents to think more abstractly and to communicate and think more flexibly and
creatively. Adolescence is when sophisticated forms of communication and language use can
develop.
Research Findings to Consider
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The acquisition and refinement of speech and language is ongoing until early adulthood.
School-age children do not have fully developed language systems.
Children are less efficient language processors than adults.
Gender differences in language processing have been observed.
Boys may have more difficulty with verbal expression, and how information is presented
may make a greater difference in their ability to learn.
The brain learns a second language most easily before school age.
During school years, children’s brains continue to mature and develop with both age
and new experiences with language.
Children may not be able to coordinate ‘listening to language’ and ‘writing language’.
Simply because a child can behaviourally perform a task does not mean that the brain is
efficiently performing that task.
Language skills can vary widely in groups of same-age children.
Spoken language is not the only means to determine whether a child understands a
concept.
Language is not simply a tool which children apply to the learning process. It is a growing,
changing skill.
Chpt 6 - The Reading Brain
In today’s world reading is our most powerful portal to knowledge. Formal education reinforces
this first by focusing on children’s need to ‘learn to read’ and then upon their need to use
‘reading to learn’. In many ways the learning to read/reading to learn link sets the stage for
most measures of children’s success for the remainder of their lives.
Unlike hearing, speaking, and basic motor skills, reading is a relatively recent cultural invention.
Most historians/archeologists date the origins of written records to about 4000 BCE, with the
creation of syllables around 2600 BCE and finally the first alphabets around 1800 BCE. It wasn’t
until when Socrates (469 - 399 BCE) begrudgingly accepted the written word as a necessary
supplement to the oral tradition of teaching that learning from texts became well established.
Even then he argued
‘that a dependence on the technology of the alphabet will alter a person’s
mind, and not for the better. By substituting outer symbols for inner
memories, writing threatens to make us shallower thinkers, preventing us
from achieving the intellectual depth that leads to wisdom and true
happiness.’
Nicholas Carr (2010)2
As we contemplate Socrates’ prediction, and Carr’s fear about how the internet
exacerbates our dependence upon ‘reading to learn’ we can take some solace in the
fact that neuroscience offers us better ways to understand the impact that the
alphabet has had on altering our brains. The fact that the human brain was not
evolved to read may explain why reading is not a naturally acquired skill and
therefore must be taught explicitly and formally in schools. Once again we see that
the combination of behavioural and neurological studies provide us with knowledge
that guide our teaching.
Two Routes for Reading
We begin this task with an understanding that reading and writing are extensions of
language, which is hard wired in our brains. We know that language is mainly a left
hemisphere function that is guided by right hemisphere support. To this we add our
understanding of how the brain uses short term memory to convert written symbols
into the sounds and meanings that enable communication and learning. Reading
begins with the visual input from the ‘page’ which triggers the left posterior portion
of the brain known as the visual word form area. This area relates visual (occipital
lobe) and language (temporal lobe) neural systems that develop even before birth
and far before learning to read. It does so by transforming visual input into letters
2
Carr, Nicholas, (2010). The shallows : what the Internet is doing to our brains
and words. These letters and words are then transformed into meaning using two
separate processes (routes).
The phonological route decodes a string of letters and translates them into a sound
pattern that may match a speech pattern which is meaningful. This route is reserved
for words that are regular i.e. – that follow the typical correspondence between
graphemes and phonemes. If a word is irregular (rare or novel) we use the
phonological route try to sound it out. This is a relatively slow, systematic route that
relies on the left posterior temporoparietal brain regions.
The second process is the direct route and it by-passes the sound pattern stage and
attempts to match the printed word directly with its meaning. The words we read
using the direct route are ‘sight words’, ones that we frequently encounter and
know so well that we can jump from sight to meaning. We also use this route for
irregular words that we have memorized because regular pronunciation rules do not
apply. This route, which lies on the left posterior occipitotemporal region, tends to
be must faster – in typical adult readers it responds to a word in about 180
milliseconds but only when the word is in the written language that one as learned.
The typical healthy reader is thought to use both routes constantly and interactively.
As we learn to read it seems logical that we would use the direct route more often if
the words become part of our ‘sight word’ complement. Thus the selective response
of the visual word form area is education dependent. This could explain why, for
healthy children, reading becomes easier with more practice.
Timeline of Reading in the Brain
It is important to note that visual recognition (seeing) differs based upon what we
are looking at. We are genetically predisposed to perceive faces and places much
more so than words. This means that the areas that enable us to recognize faces and
places are located in relatively fixed places in the brain, while the word form area is
less precisely located. This supports the belief that specialization for perceiving faces
and places is genetically guided, whereas specialization for letters and words is not.
It is possible that human evolution has caused areas within the neocortex that are
devoted to the perception of objects to become specialized for recognizing faces
and places and that the word form area is still evolving as a result of neuronal
recycling. If so, we may not have to teach reading in a few thousand more years!
The process of making sense of a visual stimulus is sometimes referred to as the N1
response3. This process occurs whenever a person sees a face, place, or word. In
3
The N1 response is an event related potential (ERP) used in cognitive neuroscience to study the physiological
responses to sensory stimulus when the brain processes information. The N means the wave response is negative
and the 1 means it occurs about 100 msec after the stimulation.
typical adult readers the response is left lateralized for words and right lateralized
for faces. When an adult sees a word the response time is typically 400-500 msecs
between perceiving a word and recognizing it. For skilled adult readers this response
time reduces to 150-200 msecs. During these periods of time higher-order cognitive
processing also occurs, processing that extracts sound and meaning from the
printed word. Interestingly, these higher-order processes do not wait for visual
analysis to be completed. Tihs may be why we can raed wrods that have all the
crroect letrtes but in the worng odrer.
Cross-Linguistic Differences
Orthographical transparency is one way of describing language. This is a measure of how much
a single letter or group of letters (grapheme) represent a single sound (phoneme). Italian and
Spanish have nearly a 1:1 relationship which means the spelling of a word enables its correct
pronunciation. If you can spell a word, you can pronounce it and vice versa. Languages like
English have many exceptions and therefore have poor transparency. In English there are
nearly thirty pronunciations for every grapheme! Some languages such as Japanese and
Cherokee use syllables rather than letters to form written words [e.g. – In Japanese, San means
three, Dan means degree, so Sandan means third degree. Likewise the term for foreigner, Gaijin
is a combination of gai (outside) and jin (person)]. Other languages, like Chinese, represent
words with symbols and are referred to as logographic systems. These languages contain many
symbols and many can be interpreted in multiple ways. For example, the Chinese word for
foreigner is
鬼佬 or 老外 where the symbols 老 (lǎo, "old, always") + 外 (wài, "outlander, foreign")
老外4 can also mean ‘foreign devil’ which is an insult, or ‘ghost man’ which alludes to white
skinned complexion of many foreign visitors.
Development of the Reading Brain
As the reading brain develops it changes by: 1. increasing its specialization of the left
hemisphere, 2. decreasing its use of the left anterior area, and 3. increasing its use of left
posterior. The increased specialization of the left hemisphere is likely due to the brain’s
increased ability to recognize a wide variety of symbols as the same letter. The multiple
visuospatial patterns of the various ways of representing each letter of the alphabet are
transformed into twenty-six categories of the English alphabet. The shift from the use of the
anterior to the posterior may be due to the shift from phonological decoding to automatic word
recognition. This means that the working memory processes of the left anterior area are no
longer required because the direct route is capable of processing a word quickly. As the
posterior region matures it supports fluent, automatic reading.
4
Pronounced kwai lo
At the same time that these changes occur, the brain increases it capacity to respond to printed
stimuli as compared to other visual inputs. In non-reading kindergartners the N1 word response
shifts from zero toward the typical 150 – 200 msecs of a high functioning adult reader. The
larger the difference between N1 word response and N1 symbol response the faster the
children read. This integration between print and sound continues to develop for many years.
Reading Difficulty in the Brain – Developmental Dyslexia
Dyslexia, the most commonly identified reading disability, is defined as difficulty in reading or
spelling words accurately and/or fluently given average or higher than average cognitive ability.
This is associated with a weakness in phonological processing skills. It is a heterogeneous
disorder that may result from a variety of specific underlying difficulties that vary from child to
child, including specific deficits in automaticity or auditory and visual perception.
Dyslexic children consistently exhibit decreased or absent activations in the left posterior brain
regions when performing tasks that require phonological or orthographic processing, when
compared to reading-matched and age-matched readers. Readers with dyslexia often exhibit
increased activation in frontal brain regions and the right-hemisphere posterior regions. This
may be due to a compensation for weaker posterior reading networks. Frontal activations for
these readers do not differ from reading matched children. Adolescents with dyslexia who
improve or compensate appear to do so by exploiting this atypical use of frontal-lobe regions
rather than by the development of left posterior reading systems. Children with dyslexia show
less word-specific response to print (N1) and less left hemisphere lateralization than nondyslexic readers. They do not respond to words differently than symbols.
Structural Brain Differences that Reflect Functional Brain Differences
The brain consists of two types of matter – gray matter and white matter.
Gray matter is composed of neuronal cell bodies while white matter is composed of myelinated
axon tracts. Readers with dyslexia show less gray matter volume in several regions associated
with reading. Even when compared to younger reading-matched children, readers with dyslexia
show less gray matter in the left hemisphere temporoparietal region in which they show
reduced activation. Thus there is some correspondence between functional and structural brain
differences in dyslexia. Better organized white matter in the left posterior region is associated
with better reading skill among healthy individuals. White matter tracts in the left frontal
regions also reflect weaker connections in readers with dyslexia. These individuals also have
greater than normal white matter connectivity in the corpus callosum, which connects regions
of the left and right hemispheres. These findings suggest that, in dyslexia, white matter
pathways supporting reading project too weakly within the primary reading pathways of the
linguistic left hemisphere, but they project too strongly between hemispheres (which may
reflect an atypical reliance on right hemisphere regions for reading).
How Intervention Affects the Struggling Reader’s Brain
Reading interventions can change the structure and function of the brain. Due to brain
plasticity left-hemisphere brain regions that are typically under activated in dyslexia exhibit a
gain in activation after effective intervention (Lindamood-Bell program for adults, FastForWord
for children). Children with dyslexia who had under activated left temporoparietal and frontal
brain regions showed gains in activation in those regions after effective remediation.
Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing program and Phon-Graphix interventions resulted in a shift
from greater activation in the right hemisphere to greater left hemisphere activation and
normalization of white matter structure. Effective interventions with dyslexic readers can also
strengthen activation in brain regions not typically engaged in reading. Effective interventions
may act in two ways – normalization of the brain and brain compensation. These affects can be
long lasting.
Prevention or early treatment of dyslexia yields better outcomes that later treatment.
Neuroscience methods have shown surprising strength in predicting future reading difficulty. A
near-term goal could be the prediction and prevention of dyslexia. In general, brain imaging
combined with familial information may facilitate preventive interventions that allow more
children to succeed at learning to read.
Chpt 7 - Constructing a Reading Brain
Expectations for neuroscience-based easy-to-follow recipes for classroom practice are
unrealistic but in combination with what we know from cognitive, developmental, and other
learning sciences, neuroscience can provide a new perspective on education.
There is no single part of the brain that ‘does’ reading. The brain is simply not designed for
reading. As we learn to read, we are borrowing from and building upon multiple neural
systems, each with their own specialization and actually constructing a brain that can read.
Learning to read involves the development of several constituent systems and then connecting
those systems so that they work in concert automatically and fluently. This process takes years,
beginning before formal schooling and extending throughout the school years.
The key systems that are required to read include the orthographic system that enables the
visual processing of text, the phonological system used to process the sounds of language, and
the semantic system used to connect meaning to words.
Visual Processing: Orthography
The first task for a reader is to make sense of the marks on a page. This begins with recognizing
the orthographic symbols of the language (for us the Roman alphabet) – a task that is difficult
because the symbols are arbitrary, abstract and sometimes easily confused. Distinguishing
between letters requires a highly sensitive visual system. The occipital lobes in the visual cortex
enable us to identify lines, curves, angles, terminals and junctions that form written symbols.
These visual elements are combined to create letters and words that we see on the page. In
order to read we must make meaning of the patterns that we see.
ɡet RAY
away
爱
我
现
English small letters for the verb move
Capital letters for your instructor’s first name
Small letters for a place that is at a distance
Two Chinese symbols for Ai (the English word ‘love’ )
Chinese symbols for Wǒ and Xiànzài5 (the English words ‘Me’ and ‘Now’)
5
Pronounced who wa and shia si
As we ‘read’ each of these patterns the pattern that we ‘see’ is processed by two separate
regions of the brain. One pathway (ventral pathway) determines ‘what’ is being seen and
transfers the information to the temporal lobes. The ventral pathway is specialized for
processing colour, form, texture, patterns, and fine detail. Learning to read appears to involve
adapting and specializing the ventral visual stream through practice with printed words.
The other (dorsal pathway) determines ‘where’ we are seeing the symbol, which allows us to
place what we in some order. (i.e. - to place parts of a symbol, letter or word in order from left
to right or up to down. The dorsal pathway enables a reader to move across the page in a
complicated pattern of fixations (periods of relative stillness) and saccades (brief jumps across
the text). The dorsal stream is involved in controlling eye movements and dorsal stream deficits
have been associated with reading difficulties. Activation of the dorsal stream is much reduced
in adults with dyslexia. Given that English is read from left to right and Chinese from top to
bottom we can see that both pathways are essential for making meaning of the symbols.
Building a brain that reads involves developing these two pathways (streams). Therefore
children who are learning how to read are truly changing their brains.
The fusiform gyrus is a structure that runs along the base of the brain and contains a sub-region
that has become known as the word form area. This area is activated by stimuli that are wordlike (i.e. – for us this means they follow the rules of English language). If removed surgically the
individual loses their ability to read. The fusiform gyrus enables us to recognize faces, a skill that
far precedes reading skills. The current belief is that a portion of this part of the brain has
become specialized for word processing. This specialization progresses over time and with
experience with words. It is absent in kindergartners, present in second graders, and continues
to develop through adolescence. Its development is correlated with the recognition of familiar
letter patterns (decoding automaticity) which is an essential skill in reading. Adults who are not
experts at reading (particularly those with dyslexia) show no activation of this area during
reading.
Auditory Processing Phonology
Phonology involves the sound system of a language. Phonological processing systems related to rhymes
develop early. In fact the region associated with speech processing, the superior temporal sulcus is
sensitive to speech very early in the course of typical development. This area is used for both spoken
and written language processing which has been proven by studies that show that silent reading
activates this region.
Activities that emphasize the sound structure of language help to develop phonological awareness. This
is important because phonological awareness appears to be positively correlated with reading skill
throughout school. This may be explained by the “Matthew Effect’ which suggests that lack of ability
cause lack of performance/participation, which then leads to lower performance compared to those
who particpate at higher levels.
The connection between speech and reading is supported by the belief that learning to read, by
changing the phonological processing systems changes the way speech is anlayzed and phonemes are
remembered. As a result of reading, whole word sounds are automatically broken up into sound
constituents thereby changing language processing. The bonus is that by keeping track of phoneme
constituents a reader is can remember novel word sounds more accurately.
Connectivity: Mapping Orthography to Phonology
The two best predictors of reading achievement in early elementary school are letter identification
(knowing graphemes)and phonological awareness (knowing phonemes). These two sets of knowledge
map onto one another. Learnin g these mappings is a skill we call decoding, a skill that is required for a
child to learn to read. Even this step is difficult when learning to read in English because the English
language has a ‘deep orthography’; the mapping of grapheme to phoneme is not one-to-one like it is in
some languages. This is also why it is difficult to learn how to spell in English. In fact, studies show that
there are two areas of the brain responsible for this task. For easy, familiar orthgrapic-to-phonological
mappings the posterior regions are activated, while more difficult mappings rely on more anterior
regions. Other differences in mapping indicate that adults and older children activate regions associated
with automaticity while younger children do not. Furthermore, children who lack activation in the
posterior regions exhibit reading disability. Fortunately, we find that this activation can be increased
through the use of phonologically-based interventions that focus on letter-sound mappings and this
improves reading ability. It is important to realize that the activation of individual regions is not enough
to learn to read well. These regions are part of a more complex interconnected system and the
dynamics of the system may either enable us to read well or experience dyslexia. Uncoordinated
processing may be characteristic of poor reading.
Meaning Processing: Semantics
Studies of family environments provide us with valuable information for understanding and assisting
poor readers. By age three, 86 to 98 percent of a child’s vocabulary consists of words in his or her
caregivers’ vocabulary. Children who grow up in low-income households in which they are not spoken to
extensively and are not exposed to a variety of words begin school with many fewer words than their
peers from higher-income households. This may be related to the finding that children in professional
families hear eleven million words per year while those in families receiving welfare hear only three
million. Alarmingly, the vocabulary gap created from this difference remained for years later (Matthew
Effect ?)
The development of speech results from hearing words and developing a spoken-vocabulary which we
refer to as lexicon. This lexicon enables children to make meaning not only when speaking but also when
reading. If a word grapheme activates a phoneme that is common in spoken-vocabulary it triggers the
activation of other words that the brain has connected to that phoneme. When this happens the reader
goes from decoding a word to developing a robust meaning of the word in context to other words. The
capacity to relate written words to spoken words as well as other written words depends upon the same
brain regions. Since spoken and written lexicon are interconnected, a child expands both speaking and
reading at the same time. In fact, by the time a child is in third grade, there is a shift from spoken to
written language as the source of most new entries in his or her lexicon.
Semantics is the development of meaning of words or phrases in our vocabulary. Understanding
semantics is therefore very valuable when teaching a child to read. It appears as if the lexical
information that enables semantics is stored in a distributive fashion throughout the brain and the
locations depend upon a variety of elements associated with words (action-orientation, kinesthetic,
tactile, visual, auditory, orthographic, and phonological). When one of these elements is activated it can
cause the related elements to activate as well. A sound or scent or touch can activate several related
aspects of an experience during which it was perceived. The same connections can be made when
reading a word, thus providing a reader with a semantic context for a word. This belief about how lexical
information is stored supports the current beliefs of the value of multi-sensory instruction. Although it is
distributed throughout the brain vacabulary knowledge appears to be organized into semantic
networks. Words that are conceptually related to one another are linked.
Chpt 8 - The Mathematical Brain
Chpt 9 - The Calculating Brain
Chpt 10 - The Computing Brain
Chpt 11 - The Creative-Artistic Brain
Chpt 12 - The Future of Educational Neuroscience