Core Subject: Personal Development (Per Dev)

Unit 2: Aspects of Personal Development

MODULE 6: The Powers of the Mind

Topic 14: Cognitive Development

The power to act
The brain has three major parts;
1. Brain stem
 connects the spinal cord and the brain.
 It controls functions that keep people alive such as breathing, heart rate, blood pressure and food
digestion.
 Those activities occur without any thought. You aren't telling yourself, "Inhale. Exhale. Inhale." You're
just breathing.
2. Cerebellum
 Controls voluntary movement (lift your fork, wave your hand, brush your hair
 You form the thought and then an area in the cerebellum translates your will into action.
 It happens so quickly.
 Think about how little time passes between your desire to continue reading this sentence and the time it
takes your eyes to move to this word or this one. It seems automatic, but it isn't.
Neurons
 the basic functional units of the nervous system, are three-part units and are key to brain function.
 They are comprised of a nerve cell body, axon and dendrite
 The power the rapid-fire process that turns thought into movement.
 The thought moves as an electrical signal from the nerve cell down the axon to a dendrite, which looks
like branches at the end of nerve [Link] signal jumps from the end of the dendrite on one cell across
the space, called a synapse, to the dendrite of another cell with the help of chemicals called
neurotransmitters. That signal continues jumping from cell to cell until it reaches the muscle you need to
wave, wink or walk.
3. Cerebrum
 the largest of the three brain sections, accounts for about 85 percent of the brain's weight, and has four
lobes.
Parietal lobe - helps people understand what they see and feel.
Frontal lobe - determines personality and emotions.
Occipital lobe - vision functions are located.
Temporal lobe - hearing and word recognition abilities.
A critical age
Because the brain's healthy functioning is essential to living and determines quality of life, doctors
emphasize protecting the organ from injury and chemical abuse. There is a consensus among researchers that
brain cells regenerate throughout life, said Doug Postels, a pediatric neurosurgeon in New Orleans, but that
new growth happens very slowly after a certain age. "The size of the brain doesn't increase much after
3," Postels explains. During the first three years of life, the brain experiences most of its growth and
develops most of its potential for learning. That's the time frame in which synaptogenesis, or the creation of
pathways for brain cells to communicate, occurs. Doctors generally accept that cut-off point for two reasons,
Postels said.
First, in situations where doctors removed parts of the brains of patients younger than 3 to correct disorders, the
remaining brain sections developed to assume the role of the portions those doctors removed. But when
physicians performed the same surgery on older patients, that adaptability function did not occur.
Second, "We know from experiments that if you deprive people of intellectual stimulation and put them in a
dark room, that it produces permanent changes in the brain," Postels said. "That occurs most dramatically before
age 3. After that age, it's impossible to ethically do a study." Previous research produced information about the
effects of stimulation deprivation, but modern ethical guidelines prohibit such research on people because of the
potentially harmful outcome.
Drug damage
Because so little recovery occurs to brains damaged after age 3, the effects of drugs and alcohol on the brain
might be lasting. Doctors know what inhalants, steroids, marijuana, cocaine and alcohol do to the brain when
people use them. "The question scientists can't answer now is if the damage is permanent," said Sue Rusche, co-
author of "False Messengers," a book on how addictive drugs change the brain.
Inhalants, such as glue, paint, gasoline and aerosols, destroy the outer lining of nerve cells and make them
unable to communicate with one another. In 1993, more than 60 young people died from sniffing inhalants,
according to National Families in Action, a drug education center based in Atlanta.
Studies have found that marijuana use hinders memory, learning, judgment and reaction times, while
steroids cause aggression and violent mood swings. Ecstasy use is rising among young people, Rusche said,
and scientists have found that drug destroys neurons that make serotonin, a chemical crucial in controlling
sleep, violence, mood swings and sexual urges.
While doctors and scientists know about some effects drugs have on the brain, they don't have a full picture,
Rusche said. "When people start using a drug, the scientists know nothing about it. These people are
volunteering to be guinea pigs," said Rusche, who is co-founder and executive director of National Families in
Action. "Once enough people take it, scientists apply for grants and start studying it. People are inventive. They
find new drugs or new ways to take old drugs-like crack.

Topic 15: Critical Thinking and Some Theories about the Brain-Side Dominance
THE DOMINANT SIDE OF THE BRAIN
Researchers believed that brain dominance determines a person’s preferences, problem-solving style,
personality characteristics, and even career choices. For example, a right-brain individual will quickly get a
feeling for a situation, while a left-brain person will usually ask a lot of questions first. The following chart
reflects additional difference between left and right-brain dominance.
PERSONAL PREFERENCE
LEFT DOMINANCE RIGHT DOMINANCE
Classical music Popular music
Being on time A good times
Careful planning To visualize the outcome
To consider alternative To go with the first idea
Being thoughtful Being active

There is nothing good or bad about either preference. Both orientations can be equally successful in
accomplishing a single task; however, one may be more appropriate over the other depending on the situation.

RESEARCH STUDY “THE BRAIN’S LEFT AND RIGHT SIDES SEEM TO WORK TOGETHER
BETTER IN MATHEMATICALLY GIFTED MIDDLE-SCHOOL YOUTH”
WASHINGTON- There really may be something different about the brains of math-heads. Mathematically
gifted teens did better than average-ability teens and college students on tests that required the two halves of the
brain to cooperate, as reported in the April issue of Neuropsychology, published by the American Psychological
Association (APA).
In the study, a joint effort of psychologists at the U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social
Sciences at Fort Benning, Ga. and the University of Melbourne, Australia, researchers studied 60 right-handed
males: 18 mathematically gifted (averaging nearly 14 years in age), 18 of average math ability (averaging just
over 13), and 24 college students (averaging about 20). Math giftedness seems to favor boys over girls,
appearing an estimated six to 13 times more often. It's not known why but prenatal exposure to testosterone is
suspected to be one influence due to its selective benefit to the right half of the brain. The gifted boys were
recruited from a Challenges for Youth-Talented program at Iowa State University. Whereas the average
Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) math score for college-bound high-school seniors is 500 (out of 800), the
mathematically gifted boys' average SAT math score in middle school was 620. The boys viewed letter patterns
flashed on the left or right sides of a computer screen, and had to indicate whether two patterns matched or not -
a simple way of learning how the brain responds to data put before either the left or right visual field,
corresponding to processing in the right or left brain because the input generally crosses over to the other side.
The letter patterns were presented in three conditions - one-sided, to the right hemisphere (left eye); one-sided,
to the left hemisphere (right eye); or bilaterally (both eyes). There were two types of tasks -- "local," saying two
letters matched or mismatched on the small letters that went into making big letters (for example, a big T whose
two strokes were made of smaller T's), and "global," saying two big letters matched or mismatched.
For the average teens and college students, the left-brain hemisphere was faster for local matches and the
right brain hemisphere was faster for global matches. This fit prior research, which has indicated that the
left hemisphere is adept at processing visual "parts," in this case the letter details, while the right hemisphere is
more adept at analyzing visual "wholes," in this case the global shapes of the big letters. However, the
mathematically gifted boys showed no such hemispheric differences. Those who were precocious in math were
equally good at processing global and local elements with either hemisphere, suggesting more interactive,
cooperative left and right brains.
In addition, whereas average-ability boys and college students were slower on cooperative trials, which
presented letter patterns on both sides of the screen, the math-gifted showed the opposite pattern. They were
slower on one-sided trials, but when a task "asked" both sides of the brain to work together, they were
considerably faster than the other boys
The study supports the growing notion that the mathematically gifted are better at relaying and integrating
information between the cerebral hemispheres. Says co-author Michael O'Boyle, PhD, "It's not that you have a
special math module somewhere in your brain, but rather that the brain's particular functional organization -
which allows right-hemisphere contributions to be better integrated into the overall cognitive/behavioral
equation -- predisposes it towards the use of high-level imagery and spatial skills, which in turn just happen to
be very useful when it comes to doing math reasoning."
The research supports the broader notion that "the functional (though not necessarily structural)
organization of the brain may be an important contributor to individual differences in cognitive abilities,
talents and, at the very least, information processing styles," says O'Boyle. He adds, "Various expressions
of exceptionality, such as giftedness in math, music or art, may be the by-product of a brain that has
functionally organized itself in a qualitatively different way than the usual left/right hemispheric asymmetry."
At the same time, O'Boyle is not sure whether the findings could apply to math education in general. "Our work
may perhaps have something to say about the optimal timing of when a particular brain is most 'ready to learn'
or acquire a given skill, but I don't think we can 'create' a math genius without the innate talent already there,"
he says. Finally, given the rising use of testosterone by adult men, O'Boyle cautions that, "Testosterone taken
later in life will not help your math, as the window of influence on brain development is pretty much prenatal. It
may enhance muscle mass, but it is unlikely to help you solve calculus problems."
MIND MAPPING
Mind mapping is a powerful thinking tool. It is a graphical technique that mirrors the way the brain works, and
was invented by Tony Buzan. Mind mapping helps to make thinking visible. Most people make notes using
lined paper and blue or black ink. Making notes more attractive to the brain by adding color and rhythm can
aid the learning process, and can help to make learning fun. The subject being studied is crystallized in a
central image and the main theme radiates out from the central image on branches. Each branch holds a key
image or a key word. Details are then added to the main branches and radiate further out. Mind maps have a
wide variety of uses, for example, note taking, revision planning, planning for writing and problem
solving can all be successfully carried out using the technique. The colors and the graphics used will help
children to organize their ideas and thoughts. They can be very simple or, quite detailed depending upon the
age of the children and the complexity of the subject. Because creating the mind map involves the use of the left
and right brain, remembering the information becomes easier!
How to draw a mind map:
1. Turn the page on its side (landscape). Use plain paper.
2. Draw the central image using different colors. The central image should encapsulate the subject of the
map.
3. Add the branches representing the subject’s main topics or themes using key words or images.
4. Add detail with more key words and images. Use color.
5. Print the words clearly.
6. Use arrows to connect linked ideas.

YOU CAN GROW YOUR INTELLIGENCE

Learning can rewire the brain and increase their intelligence. On the other hand, students often become more
interested in learning and less afraid to do things that might make them “look dumb.” In other words, they
develop a growth mindset. Educators can help students develop a growth mindset by teaching them about the
amazing properties of the brain. In the following lessons, we suggest some ways to introduce students to the
growth mindset. We also provide a few general guidelines below.
It's a science lesson, not brainwashing. It can be tempting to explain what a growth mindset is and what a fixed
mindset is and then simply tell students that they “should” have a growth mindset. That approach is sure to
backfire—students won't accept a completely new way of thinking just because someone tells them to, nor
should they! Present the scientific evidence and help students come to their own decisions. In other words,
“show them, don't tell them.”
Growth mindset is about growth, not just about effort. When people first learn about growth mindset, some
think it means to believe that “you can succeed if you just try harder.” There's more to it than that. For students
to have a growth mindset, they should understand that trying harder —and trying new strategies—not only
helps them succeed at the current task but also helps them succeed in the future by strengthening their brain,
New Research Shows the Brain Can Be Developed Like a Muscle. Many people think of the brain as a
mystery. They don’t know much about intelligence and how it works. When they do think about what
intelligence is, many people believe that a person is born either smart, average, or dumb—and stays that way for
life. But new research shows that the brain is more like a muscle—it changes and gets stronger when you
use it. And scientists have been able to show just how the brain grows and gets stronger when you learn.
Everyone knows that when you lift weights, your muscles get bigger and you get stronger. A person who can’t
lift 20 pounds when they start exercising can get strong enough to lift 100 pounds after working out for a long
time. That’s because the muscles become larger and stronger with exercise. And when you stop exercising, the
muscles shrink and you get weaker. That’s why people say “Use it or lose it!” But most people don’t know that
when they practice and learn new things, parts of their brain change and get larger a lot like muscles do when
they exercise.
Inside the cortex of the brain are billions of tiny nerve cells, called neurons. The nerve cells have branches
connecting them to other cells in a complicated network. Communication between these brain cells is what
allows us to think and solve problems. When you learn new things, these tiny connections in the brain
actually multiply and get stronger. The more that you challenge your mind to learn, the more your brain cells
grow. Then, things that you once found very hard or even impossible to do—like speaking a foreign language or
doing algebra—seem to become easy. The result is a stronger, smarter brain.
How Do We Know the Brain Can Grow Stronger?
Scientists started thinking that the human brain could develop and change when they studied animals’ brains.
They found out that animals who lived in a challenging environment, with other animals and toys to play with,
were different from animals who lived alone in bare cages. While the animals who lived alone just ate and slept
all the time, the ones who lived with different toys and other animals were always active. They spent a lot of
time figuring out how to use the toys and how to get along with the other animals.
These animals had more connections between the nerve cells in their brains. The connections were bigger
and stronger, too. In fact, their whole brains were about 10% heavier than the brains of the animals who lived
alone without toys. The animals who were exercising their brains by playing with toys and each other were also
“smarter”—they were better at solving problems and learning new things. Even old animals got smarter and
developed more connections in their brains when they got the chance to play with new toys and other animals.
When scientists put very old animals in the cage with younger animals and new toys to explore, their
brains also grew by about 10%!
The Key to Growing the Brain: Practice!
From the first day they are born, babies are hearing people around them talk—all day, every day, to the baby
and to each other. They have to try to make sense of these strange sounds and figure out what they mean. In a
way, babies are exercising their brains by listening hard. Later, when they need to tell their parents what they
want, they start practicing talking themselves. At first, they just make goo-goo sounds. Then, words start
coming. And by the time they are three years old, most can say whole sentences almost perfectly. Once
children learn a language, they don’t forget it. The child’s brain has changed—it has actually gotten smarter.
This can happen because learning causes permanent changes in the brain. The babies’ brain cells get larger and
grow new connections between them. These new, stronger connections make the child’s brain stronger and
smarter, just like a weightlifter’s big muscles make them strong.

The Real Truth About “Smart” and “Dumb”.

No one thinks babies are stupid because they can’t talk. They just haven’t learned how to yet. But some people
will call a person dumb if they can’t solve math problems, or spell a word right, or read fast—even though all
these things are learned with practice. At first, no one can read or solve equations. But with practice, they can
learn to do it. And the more a person learns, the easier it gets to learn new things—because their brain
“muscles” have gotten stronger! The students everyone thinks as the “smartest” may not have been born any
different from anyone else. But before they started school, they may have started to practice reading. They had
already started to build up their “reading muscles.” Then, in the classroom, everyone said, “That’s the smartest
student in the class.” They don’t realize that any of the other students could learn to do as well if they exercised
and practiced reading as much. Remember, all of those other students learned to speak at least one whole
language already—something that grownups find very hard to do. They just need to build up their “reading
muscles” too.
What Can You Do to Get Smarter?
Just like a weightlifter or a basketball player, to be a brain athlete, you have to exercise and practice. By
practicing, you make your brain stronger. You also learn skills that let you use your brain in a smarter way—
just like a basketball player learns new moves. But many people miss out on the chance to grow a stronger
brain because they think they can’t do it, or that it’s too hard. It does take work, just like becoming
stronger physically or becoming a better ball player does. Sometimes it even hurts! But when you feel
yourself get better and stronger, all the work is worth it!