About twenty years ago various studies concluded that it is very important to speak to children because there is a close link between the number of words heard and language ability later in life. A new study conducted with instruments that examine brain development and that were not available 20 years ago says that it...
If we understand what is being said when someone speaks to us our brain sends a signal that can be registered on an EEG. If instead we do not understand, or we simply are not paying attention, the listener’s brain does not send any signal. This discovery has many potential applications in many different fields....
The Matabele ants risk their lives in battle every day. Two to four times a day they leave their nests and proceed in columns of about five hundred ants to fight battles with termites at their termite nests. Fierce battles take place and dead termites are carried back home as food. Although the ants are...
There are things we can do alone, things we can do if someone helps us and things we can’t do even if someone helps. The zone of potential learning is the space between what we can do only if helped and what we cannot do even with help. The concept is important for three reasons....
Emotions are contagious. They are passed on automatically, rapidly and frequently from one person to another. Such contagion is at the heart of empathy, social connections and relationships between people. Anger felt by a friend for an injustice or joy for an exam easily spill on to us. We often mime the expressions, posture and...
