Watching TV in school might sound like a bad idea. Granted, in my own school days, the only time teachers let us watch movies was at the end of term as a treat, not for educational purposes. Over the last two decades, the amount of time kids spend in front of screens has risen dramatically…. Read More

Happiness is a piece of (blueberry) cake. Most of us accept the notion that brain development is “complete” around the time we reach our early-to-mid twenties. The average age may differ for males and females, but for the most part we “are who we are” by the time we reach twenty-five years old. Be that… Read More

Say you’re a math teacher, standing in front of the class posing a word problem to your students. The word problems goes like this: “There are 42 cows in a field, and five go back to the farm. How many cows are left in the field?” The students understand that the answer requires them to… Read More

What’s the best way to learn more efficiently? Adopting proven learning techniques like practice testing and interleaved practice is important, of course, but research shows that, on the whole, introducing novelty is one of the best ways to stay motivated and learn more effectively. Russell Poldrack, professor of psychology and neurobiology and director of the… Read More

Most writers have experienced it at one point or another in their careers: staring at an empty document on their computers or a blank page in their notebooks, and nothing happening. Playwright Paul Rudnick described it as follows: “Writing is 90 percent procrastination: reading magazines, eating cereal out of the box, watching infomercials. It’s a… Read More

Researchers have found that people who produce more creative ideas—in other words, creative people—use different parts of their brains than the rest of us. While most people activate what’s called the “spontaneous thinking network” or what’s called the “controlled thinking network,” but not both at the same time, creative people activate both networks simultaneously. Roger… Read More