learning

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...

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...

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...

...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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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

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...

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...