How Do We Learn

How do we learn? This is a question with multiple, multifaceted answers. Indeed, the question underlies many TDLC research projects. And in cognitive science, it is often fruitful to focus not on the normal operation of a cognitive system, but rather its failure. Thus, one recently completed TDLC project centered on failure – specifically, why students fail to learn in educational settings. More

Visual Pathways Fine Tuned over Time
Marlene Behrmann, Carnegie Mellon University

In adolescents, activation in the ventral visual pathway for the category of “faces” appears at first glance to be adult-like; but, surprisingly, their recognition abilities for individual faces is actually still immature. Now TDLC researchers Marlene Behrmann, K. Suzanne Scherf, Beatriz Luna and Galia Avidan have investigated at the neural level the ability to represent individual faces and houses.

Our Rich Cognitive Abilities
Tim Curran, University of Colorado

Cognitive neuroscience research often focuses on the functional role of specific brain regions. But of course performing the myriad of cognitive tasks that make us human actually requires interaction throughout our complex and dynamic neural networks. So a major question faced by cognitive neuroscientists is: How do the functionally specialized brain areas interact to perform rich cognitive abilities? TDLC Investigator Tim Curran and Graduate Student Erika Nyhus wrote a comprehensive review paper of episodic memory.