learning

  1. haidut

    Serotonin enhances learning from punishment, reduces learning from reward

    Research as early as the 1960s firmly established that there is nothing "happy" when it comes to serotonin (5-HT). Namely, elevated 5-HT levels were found in many chronic diseases and especially clinical depression. It took more than 7 decades for medicine to finally start admitting that 5-HT is...
  2. Sitaruîm

    Three Months With a Fiddle

    Three Months With a Fiddle The discussion on learning a musical instrument as an adult is all-too discouraging, and it doesn’t help when one stumbles upon a video of a kid playing a concerto by Mozart before he's taken his first steps. Even gifted musicians despair at the “late” age at which...
  3. youngsinatra

    Lazy **** To A+ Student — Possible? If So, How?

    Hello everyone, I am interested in your perspective on this one. Do you think it is possible to become an A+ student if you are starting off as a lazy, not so genetically-gifted person to begin with? If so, what would you focus on physiologically and psychologically to achieve this? Drop...
  4. haidut

    We Learn Faster When Our Choices Aren't Forced / Influenced

    One of the most popular quotes by Peat states that "The attempt to steer a person can make it hard for them to move, because it inactivates their own guidance system". While he said it in the context of authoritarian systems designed to force/elicit specific actions from people, I have long...
  5. haidut

    A Piece Of Plastic Can Learn Through Training, Just Like Animals

    The house of cards that is modern "science" continues to crumble, albeit slowly. Several years ago I made a post on the ability of an "inanimate" piece of matter (dough) to learn simple behaviors through repetitive training, akin to the widely publicized "Pavlov dog". The dough study references...
  6. haidut

    People With More Intellectual Humility Have Superior (general) Knowledge

    A really good study, which may suggest the arrogant "experts" running society are probably a lot less knowledgeable and wise then they would have us believe. The study is also potentially a corroboration of the Dunning-Kruger Effect. So, it looks like it is better to be surrounded by humble...
  7. haidut

    Hobbies Trump Science

    ...at least when it comes to learning highly sophisticated, life-saving surgical skills, which in my opinion makes the thread title that much more valid. In fact, I would make the sweeping generalization that it applies to all science and that one of the reasons we are currently in a scientific...
  8. haidut

    Leisure And Desire Required For Intelligence, Knowledge And Progress

    As many of you know, back in the 1970s Peat established something called Blake College in Mexico. Its goal was to provide an environment for true learning, free form the the constraints and dogmatism of modern academia driven by commercial and political interests. In one of his articles, Peat...
  9. haidut

    Novel (learning) Experiences Can Be A Buffer Against Workplace Stress

    As the forum users know rather well by know, novelty seeking and enjoyment are driven by dopamine and require a significant amount of metabolic energy. Most workplaces, especially large corporations, actively discourage novelty- seeking, behavior or personalities due to the firmly entrenched...
  10. haidut

    Children Notice/learn Everything, Adults Have Selective/focused Attention

    I think the most important finding of the study is that adults are actually capable of noticing and remembering a lot more, but they have to be told to pay attention to everything, otherwise they stay focused on one thing. This focused-by-default is likely the result of years of damaging...
  11. haidut

    Bees Are Capable Of Higher Learning Just Like Humans

    Peat wrote a few times about experiments with spiders and bees where the results showed that those organisms are perfectly capable of higher intelligence and can perform arithmetic operations, as well as guess intentions, plan for the future and even use tools. That last trait has been ascribed...
  12. haidut

    A Piece Of Dough Can Learn Just Like Animals And Humans

    Remarkable study, showing that there may not be that much difference between what is in our heads and that cold rock lying by the road. The learning occurred through change of structure within the matter and required proper timing - i.e. both of these phenomena are required for learning in...
  13. haidut

    Stress Increases Estrogen In Females And Impairs Cognitive Function

    I already posted several studies showing that stress elevates estrogen in males. So much for estrogen being a beneficial female hormone. Acute stress persistently enhances estrogen levels in the female rat. - PubMed - NCBI "...Here we tested whether exposure to either tailshock or swim stress...
  14. haidut

    Propensity For Risky Behavior Determined By Metabolic Rate

    The type of behavior scientists consider risky is usually the exact behavior children and young adults seem so suited for - i.e. willingness to explore and learn even in the face of danger. This is yet another study to show that openness to new experiences, desire to explore novel environments...
  15. haidut

    Even Organisms Without Neurons Are Capable Of Intelligence And Learning

    I guess the conclusion of this study would be that "brains are overrated". I am waiting for the study that shows rocks are capable of feelings and then I think we can crown Peat a king :) Brainless slime has displayed "an unmistakable form of learning" Yellow Brainless Slime Learns to Avoid...
  16. haidut

    Stress Elevates Estrogen, Not Just Cortisol

    I receive many emails challenging Peat's assertion that estrogen is a stress hormones and that it rises under conditions of both acute and chronic stress. Cortisol is the stress hormones they say, leave estrogen alone. Well, not according to this study. Also, estrogen damages the negative...
  17. haidut

    Brain Levels Of Gaba Predict Tactile Learning Ability

    This study is perhaps counter-intuitive to some given that GABA is the major inhibitory neurotransmitter in the CNS. However, GABA has repeatedly been shown to be crucial for the ability of the brain to learn and cholinergic drugs that were tried for Alzheimers failed spectacularly. For those...
  18. sweetly

    Chronic Aspirin Ingestion Improves Spatial Learning In Adult And Aged Rats

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11812527
  19. haidut

    Microwave Exposure Increases Serotonin And Impairs Learning

    The study found that chronic exposure to EMR (the kind found in your microwave and your WiFi router) leads to chronically elevated serotonin. Another point against the "happiness" hormone. I think Ray also mentioned in one of his articles that serotonin powerfully suppresses learning and memory...
  20. haidut

    There Is No Universal (linguistic) Grammar Encoded In Genes

    Ray has written on the falsehood of rationalistic ideas that the ability to learn a language is encoded in genes, based on universal grammar that only humans possess the capacity for. Chomsky's ideas have been discredited somewhat, but they are still considered a dominant force in the academic...
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