Monday's Readings

I am thrilled to see that there is more attention being paid to emotional intelligence and the important role it plays in cognition. The realms of thought and emotions seem so cavernous that it's hard to think they could be reconciled in any meaningful way. Yang's research connecting emotions to higher levels of thought through high school students and patients with damaged frontal lobes is intriguing. It's clear from the text that having emotional responses and being able to apply information gathered cognitively is vital to remembering and using said knowledge. I guess I'd like to see a future experiment that studied those who have been stunted emotionally, and how it plays in their abilities to apply feelings of right and wrong to situations. It begs the question about the way our society treats young men. If boys are taught that they must be tough and only show anger, is it possible that we are also damaging them mentally? Could there be men out there who would otherwise have a normal spectrum of emotions but have been told to "man up" who are also suffering from certain cognitive deficits as a result?
The information given in the handout was also interesting; if anyone has taken evolution, they'll notice some of the graphs seem to work along one of the theories of evolution. There is a theory about how evolution works that predicts that evolution moves along great changes, and therefore, works sporadically. Perhaps this is the same way the brain actually functions. When new neurons get their chance to work, they create millions of new connections in the brain at a rapid pace, but will slowly trickle off as they become obsolete.
The most important part of the handout was clearly the last page. I liked the information given, but was shocked to find out that some teachers have misread this information to say that during these flurries of mental activity that the brain simply cannot handle any more information, and we should therefore, stop teaching students new things! It's really important for modern scientists to be just as good at oration as they are at reporting data. Not only do they have to show findings, they must explain it in a practical way, lest their work be used in just the opposite way from how they intended.