Educational Neuroscience, 1st Edition
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Educational Neuroscience
Edited by
Denis Mareschal
Brian Butterworth
Andy Tolmie
This edition first published 2013
© 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Educational neuroscience / edited by Denis Mareschal, Brian Butterworth, Andy Tolmie.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-119-97319-5 (cloth) – ISBN 978-1-118-72589-4 (pbk.) 1. Educational
psychology–Handbooks, manuals, etc. 2. Learning–Physiological aspects–Handbooks,
manuals, etc. 3. Cognitive neuroscience–Handbooks, manuals, etc. 4. Neurosciences–
Handbooks, manuals, etc. I. Mareschal, Denis, editor of compilation. II. Butterworth, Brian,
editor of compilation. III. Tolmie, Andrew, editor of compilation.
LB1051.E348 2013
370.15–dc23
2013025391
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Cover image: the concept of learning process of children © VLADGRIN/Shutterstock
Cover design by Cyan Design
CEN Logo Designer: Storm Thorgerson at Stormstudios
Set in 11/13.5pt Minion by SPi Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India
1 2014
Dedication
To all the learners and teachers who contributed to the work described in
this book
Contents
List of contributorsix
Prefacexi
Foreword: Imaging the Future xii
Michael I. Posner
1. Introduction 1
Brian Butterworth and Andy Tolmie
2. Neuroimaging Methods 13
Frederic Dick, Sarah Lloyd-Fox, Anna Blasi, Clare Elwell,
and Debbie Mills
3. Computational Modeling of Learning and Teaching 46
Michael S. C. Thomas and Diana Laurillard
4. Genetics for Education 77
Yulia Kovas, Sergei Malykh, and Stephen A. Petrill
5. Research Methods in Educational Psychology 110
Andy Tolmie
6. Language Development 134
Victoria Knowland and Chris Donlan
7. Literacy Development 172
Liory Fern-Pollak and Jackie Masterson
8. Mathematical Development 201
Brian Butterworth and Sashank Varma
viii Contents
9. The Development and Application of Scientific Reasoning 237
Jonathan Fugelsang and Denis Mareschal
10. Social Development 268
Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, Kathrin Cohen Kadosh,
Catherine L. Sebastian, Tobias Grossmann, and Mark H. Johnson
11. Emotional Development 297
Alice Jones
12. Attention and Executive Control 325
Michelle de Haan
Afterword 349
John T. Bruer
Index364
List of Contributors
Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College
London
Anna Blasi, Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck University
of London
John T. Bruer, James S. McDonnell Foundation
Brian Butterworth, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College
London
Kathrin Cohen Kadosh, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of
Oxford
Michelle de Haan, University College London Institute of Child Health
Frederic Dick, Birkbeck/UCL Centre for NeuroImaging, Birkbeck University of
London
Chris Donlan, Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College
London
Clare Elwell, Department of Medical Physics and Bioengineering, University
College London
Liory Fern-Pollak, Centre for Cognition and NeuroImaging, Brunel University
Jonathan Fugelsang, Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo
Tobias Grossmann, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive & Brain Sciences
Mark H. Johnson, Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck
University of London
x List of Contributors
Alice Jones, Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths College, University of London
Victoria Knowland, Language and Communication Sciences, City University,
London
Yulia Kovas, Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths College, University of London
Diana Laurillard, London Knowledge Lab, Institute of Education, University of
London
Sarah Lloyd-Fox, Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck
University of London
Sergei Malykh, Laboratory for Cognitive Investigations and Behavioral Genetics,
Tomsk State University; Laboratory of Developmental Behavioral Genetics,
Psychological Institute of Russian Academy of Education
Denis Mareschal, Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck
University of London
Jackie Masterson, Department of Psychology and Human Development, Institute
of Education, University of London
Debbie Mills, School of Psychology, Bangor University
Stephen A. Petrill, Department of Human Development and Family Science,
Ohio State University
Michael I. Posner, Department of Psychology, University of Oregon
Catherine L. Sebastian, Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of
London
Michael S. C. Thomas, Developmental Neurocognition Lab, Birkbeck University
of London
Andy Tolmie, Department of Psychology and Human Development, Institute of
Education, University of London
Sashank Varma, Department of Educational Psychology, University of Minnesota
Preface
Educational Neuroscience is intended as a reference tool for use by active
researchers and practitioners alike. It reflects the activities of the Centre for
Educational Neuroscience (CEN), a joint venture between Birkbeck University
of London, University College London, and the Institute of Education, all based
in Central London. We are very grateful to these institutions for their continuing
support of the CEN, whose mission is not just to further our understanding of
how neural and biological processes can help understand learning in the class-
room, but also to ensure that there is a real dialogue between educational prac-
titioners and basic science researchers. We are also grateful to the following
individuals for their help in reading and fine-tuning the chapters within this
volume: Caspar Addyman, Gizelle Anzures, Jasmine Cockcroft, Teodora Gliga,
Victoria Knowland, Nick Lange, Manuela Mielke, Greg Pascoe, Daisy Powell,
Angelica Ronald, Michael Thomas, and Rachel Wu.
Foreword: Imaging the Future
Michael I. Posner
It is the goal of this book to summarize the methods employed and the evidence
so far collected to support educational neuroscience. Each chapter deals with
infancy, childhood, and adult education. A foreword, however, is free to attempt
to imagine an educational system that may never really exist, but could be rea-
sonably implied by what is already known. Below I have tried to help the reader
separate fantasy from reality by using real references to mark what has actually
taken place and separate it from what I think might someday happen.
One could imagine young parents taking their 10-month-old daughter to the
pediatric specialist for an educational checkup. Records of electrical activity at
the scalp are taken to see how well native phonemes are solidifying their repre-
sentation in the brain (Guttorm et al., 2005; Molfese, 2000). At the same time
Mandarin phonemes are studied to see if the parents’ goal of preparing their
daughter for a Chinese emersion school is likely to be worthwhile (Kuhl, 1994;
Kuhl, Tsao, & Liu, 2003). A new robot tutor is available to help the family reach
their goal. Entry to school might depend upon having developed a strong enough
phonemic organization to support learning to read. To obtain more information
on this the reader should examine the chapters by Victoria Knowland and Chris
Donlan, as well as Liory Fern-Pollak and Jackie Masterson, on language and
literacy. These chapters may help you decide how likely these events are.
A research laboratory at the NATO center for brain and education has released
a new report comparing English children with Chinese children in the brain
mechanisms involved in simple number comparison with Arabic digits. It has
previously been found that English-speaking and Chinese-speaking adults,
equally familiar with Arabic digits, use entirely different brain pathways to make
simple numerical comparisons (Tang et al., 2006). The new functional magnetic
resonance imaging (fMRI) study, not yet conducted, could show that following
Foreword: Imaging the Future xiii
extensive exposure to special lessons adapted from Chinese classrooms, English-
speaking children use the Chinese pathways. Could such studies lead to changes
designed to raise success and to close the achievement gap between Asian and
Western children? To find out whether this could work, even in theory, read
Butterworth and Varma on mathematical development.
There has been widespread panic about increases in the prevalence of autism
and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in the United States of
America. There is also worry among the parents of typically developing children
that in the digital age their child will not be able to resist distraction and focus
on their school subjects. Research has discovered specific attention networks
that underlie our ability to focus attention on sensory information as is needed
in reading and arithmetic (Posner & Rothbart, 2007). One of these attention net-
works, involved in orienting to sensory stimuli, is disrupted in children with
autism (Townsend, Keehn, & Westerfield, 2011) but not in children with ADHD
(Johnson et al., 2008). ADHD children have shown deficits in other attention
networks involved in alerting and voluntary control of responses (Johnson et al.,
2008). Moreover, the connectivity of the network involved in voluntary control
of response is also important in control of emotion and of the social world.
Chapters by Blakemore and colleagues and Jones show how important such con-
trols are to the development of children.
Research to be published shortly by the London Center for Educational
Neuroscience has shown that the different attention networks can be suppressed
or enhanced with drugs that influence the chemicals that modulate them.
However, drugs might not be the only or even the best alternative. A number of
recent studies of children with ADHD and those developing typically have
improved aspects of their attention by training exercises that might use com-
puters or live classroom instruction (Diamond, Barnett, Thomas, & Munro,
2007; Klingberg, 2011; Rueda, Rothbart, McCandliss, Saccamanno, & Posner,
2005). It is not yet known whether such training really makes a long term
improvement in disorders such as ADHD, or whether strengthening of attention
networks can prevent disorders and improve performance in schools. We can
imagine a future where it is possible to tailor these exercises to enhance the
performance of all children and perhaps to close achievement differences based
on social class. Background for these ideas can be obtained by reading the
chapter by Michelle de Haan.
An important development in cognitive science is that concepts based on clear
rules are often less important in human thinking than fuzzy sets in which semantic
categories are represented by typical instances (Rosch, 1975). The consequences
of such categories have been elaborated and applied to a wide range of human
thought through the study of metaphorical thinking (Lakoff & Johnson, 2003).
Imaging has begun to explore the neural basis of how the brain supports Roschian
xiv Foreword: Imaging the Future
concepts and metaphorical thinking. Expertise in a large number of domains pro-
duces activation of a posterior brain area related to the visual system, which can
automatically deal with relevant written words. Many humans are experts in face
perception (Kanwisher, 2000) and most are in reading (McCandliss, Cohen, &
Dehaene, 2003). These activate parts of the fusiform gyrus, which plays a crucial
role in both fluent face recognition and reading. As new skills are learned they can
also develop such areas and allow the person to automatically interpret new input in
light of old knowledge (Posner 2013, in press; Righi, Tarr, & Kingon, in press;
Tanaka & Curran, 2001). The study of the brain mechanisms of experts may help us
determine if a given teaching method is establishing genuine expertise. The chapter
by Jonathan Fugelsang and Denis Mareschal provides the background by discussing
the importance of training in conceptual thinking and reasoning in science.
To foster the development of an educational system related to neuroscience it
will be important for the next generation of educational researchers to under-
stand the methods and ways of thinking in neuroscience. Neuroscience results
do not dictate curricular development; rather, they require creative application
by designers to synthesize the results into appropriate curricula. To do this
means understanding how neuroscience ideas (Fred Dick and colleagues,
Chapter 2) are brought together in the formation of computational models
(Michael Thomas and Diana Laurillard, Chapter 3), and in addition how those
neural networks that are common to all people relate to network efficiency,
which differs among individuals and within individuals from time to time.
Genetic variations in interaction with the environment are one of the influences
on such individual differences (Chapter 4, Yulia Kovas and colleagues). As a link
to curricular development, education researchers need to know how to study
and evaluate preliminary designs of educational interventions to see which can
be integrated into the overall curriculum (Chapter 5, Andy Tolmie).
Although not all of these educational applications of neuroscience may come
to pass, I hope this book will play a role in conveying the exciting present and
future possibilities of educational neuroscience.
References
Diamond, A., Barnett, S., Thomas, J., & Munro, S. (2007). Preschool improves cognitive
control. Science, 30, 1387–1388.
Guttorm, T. K., Leppanen, P. H. T., Poikkeus, A. M., Eklund, K. M., Lyytinen, P., & Lyytinen,
H. (2005). Brain event-related potentials (ERPs) measured at birth predict later lan-
guage development in children with and without familial risk for dyslexia. Cortex,
41(3), 291–303.
Johnson, K. A., Robertson, I. H., Barry, E., Mulligan, A., Daibhis, A., Daly, M., Watchorn,
A., Gill, M., & Bellgrove, M. A. (2008). Impaired conflict resolution and alerting in
