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I bet you give some talks, classes or lectures where you explain your material really well. You have nice slides, you give an eloquent and passionate account of the material, and most of it is pretty interesting. The thing is – how much will your learners remember in a few weeks time?
Read MorePerhaps surprisingly, what people believe about learning and memory is often very different from the scientific consensus.
For example, in a large-scale survey of members of the public, Simons & Chabris (2011) found that over 80% of participants believed that amnesia sufferers forget their own name. This is actually not the case – the memory loss tends to affect recent events rather than their personal identity or childhood memories. In the same study, 63% of members of the public agreed with the idea that memory works like a video camera, while 48% agreed that once you have experienced an event and formed a memory of it, that memory does not change. None of these ideas are supported by mainstream psychological science; a linked study of psychology researchers found 0% endorsement in every case.
Memory seems to be fundamentally counterintuitive, and there are many other myths and misconceptions…
Read MoreHumans have evolved over the course of millions of years. Since we last shared a common ancestors with chimpanzees more than 6 million years ago (White et al, 2009), a number of hominin species have evolved - most, of course, have died out (as recently as 100,000 years ago, 4-5 homo species existed concurrently).
For most of this time, our ancestors and near relatives probably lived in grasslands environments, hunting and gathering. This environment has shaped...
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