Fce 3204 2 docx

FCE 3204 KEMAHIRAN BERFIKIR

THE CONCEPT OF BRAIN FUNCTION IN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND LEARNING PROCESS NBY: NUR AIMUNI BINTI ABDUL GHANI (168600) 0

CONTENTS

1. Introduction...................................................................................................................2 2. How the brain functions................................................................................................4 3. Learning ability of the brain..........................................................................................6 4. Implementation of the learning process.........................................................................7 5. Tools used to study the brain.........................................................................................8 6. Memory and learning.....................................................................................................9 6.1 sensory, short-term and long-term memory...........................................................10 6.2 long term memory..................................................................................................11 7. Ways to improve the memory......................................................................................12 8. Tricks to sharpen the thinking and memory skills.......................................................17 9. Conclusion...................................................................................................................19 10. References...................................................................................................................20

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1. INTRODUCTION Brain has three parts which are right hemisphere, left hemisphere, and parts of the midbrain. Each hemisphere has different functions. On the left hemisphere is designed to process human parts (in order), the right brain to process the whole (randomly) and in the middle part of the brain contributes about 20% of the total volume of the brain, responsible for sleeping, emotion, attention, setting the body, hormones, sexuality, smell, and the production of brain chemicals.

The second part of the brain involved in almost every activity. Events that occur in one hemisphere which can influence the developments taking place at the same time in the most remote parts of the brain to another. (Jerry Levy, Ph.D., (1983, 1985): University of Chicago).

While the left brain work to memorize formulas, critical thinking, and right brain cannot work, then the right brain would interfere with work on left brain. The right brain will work depends on classical music, interesting pictures, and so on. The point of a teacher must be able to provide teaching that balances the workings of the brain.

While the brain is the source ratio consisting of centre that understand what is observed. Amygdala is a place to store emotional memories that have an important role in emotional. It allow for a response before thinking and should provide lessons start with warming of the brain, in order to prepare individual brain to reach optimal learning results.

In short, all parts of the brain used in almost all of the time and cannot be stopped.

The brain works so much beyond human consciousness. Students, as one of the individuals in the study and is a different person with each other. It was a different person from a different study habits. Indeed, children learn anywhere, anytime, not just at school but also at home or the family, neighbourhood play and the environmental community.

Habit given to the child will form his personality early on. To establish the child's personality, the first step is to make him feel welcome everyone so she or he was able to accept their self. Attention is also important and necessary to child since he or she has not

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been able to talk though. Children should always be given the questions that provoked the growth of personality and comfort themselves, starting with a new child can talk.

Similarly, in learning at school, if a teacher has a student who is quiet and shy, the teacher can provoke students to speak he had the courage to speak. Teachers should also be able to recognize a private owned their students. So that, teachers can easily comprehends and understand their students. And when his disciples had the courage to speak, the teacher must be able to understand and hear what he was talking about. Thus, the students are able to control at the same time, whether he was talking about was able to form a good personality or not. If the student was wrong, the teacher should not scold or say the words that could make they feel inferior, stupid, let alone are useless.

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2. HOW THE BRAIN FUNCTION Brain is located in the skull and extends into the spinal cord. Brain weight is over 1400 grams or less - about 2% of body weight. There is no direct relationship between brain weight and size of the head with the level of intelligence. The brain is growing, but remains in the recess of the skull. So, the sign more and more information is stored, and the more discerning owner.

In anatomies, lump brain can be divided into large brain (cerebrum), the cerebellum, and medulla (brain stem).

Learning is closely connected with the cerebrum, cerebellum and more responsible

in

the

process

of

coordination and balance, and brain stem regulates

heart

rate

and

breathing

processes that are essential for life. In order to study the education system, the brain will be more explored. On the basis of the curve there is a group of fibers connecting the two hemispheres of the brain called the corpus callosum. As the brain vertically split, it will look outside the brain (cortex cerebrib) is gray and deep brain white.

Cerebral cortex has three Functions such as: Receives sensory input.

The association in charge of processing the input.

Reacts to the input duty motor with body movements.

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Information input from the outside is captured through the senses, good eyesight, hearing, smell, civilization, and as well as testing. For example, if the ear receives sound input it will be carried by the auditory nerve in the cortex side to the centre. Further, input was sent to the regions to match the meaning of the association. Eventually, sent to the centre in front of the cortex and then instructed tongue and ears and hands to act in response. All these processes are stored in warehouse in the cortex for memory which may be recalled.

Genesis decades ago were passed from generation to generation. It is then formed instincts and unexpected reactions of humans when faced with the first ever faced by their ancestors.

The brain stores information by using the association. When there is a strengthening of old information and new information, the addition of brain cells immediately grow to form new relationships. The more nervous fabric is formed, the longer and stronger the information is stored.

The brain works by using the principles of flow (circuits) and not of their own work.

The function can be fulfilled because all the brain works in a sophisticated circuitry. Each part of the brain contributes their respective advantages in this circuit. For example, the spiritual function may occur because all parts of the brain contribute in a "spiritual circuit" that can produce mystical feeling or feelings associated with the sense of peace and comfort.

Brain circuits work by following the principles below, which grow in the long span of human life:

The principle of reciprocity Relationships are divergent The composition of the serial or parallel or both Specific functions

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3. LEARNING ABILITY OF THE BRAIN (NEUROSCIENCE) As a theory-based learning ability of the brain (Neuroscience), certainly have its advantages and disadvantages.

Strengths are as follows:

Provides a new thinking about how the human brain works.

Recorded the brain naturally works the learner in the learning process.

Creating a learning environment where learners are respected and supported.

Avoiding the interpretation of the workings of the brain.

Can use different learning models when apply this theory. It is advisable to vary the learning models, so that potential learners can be developed.

Weaknesses are as follows:

Educators in Malaysia have not been fully aware of this theory (still new).

It takes quite a bit to be able to understand (learn) how our brains work.

Requires a substantial investment in creating a good learning environment for the brain.

Requires adequate facilities to support this theory of learning practice.

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4. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE LEARNING PROCESS

Learning is an interaction between internal conditions and cognitive processes of students with stimulus from the environment. To say the success of the learning process, the way the brain works is producing learning outcomes. The results of the study are as follows: Verbal information: Capability to express knowledge in the form of language, either spoken or written.

Intellectual skills: The skills that serve to relate to the environment.

Cognitive strategies: The ability to channel and direct the cognitive activity of its own.

Motor skills: The ability to perform a series of physical movement.

Attitude: The ability to accept or reject the object based on an assessment of these objects.

Another application, as a human has to increase or maximize the performance of the brain to sharpen the brain or by increasing the concentration of the brain. The more often in coaching, our brain is likely to be caught in to receive information. That will make it easier for us to accept all of the learning process if our brain is ready to accept ideas from outside and also for transmitting thoughts into other people's brains.

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5. TOOLS USED TO STUDY THE BRAIN

There are now many tools that can be used to study the brain. Electrophysiological studies involve recording from single neurons in the brains and gives a direct measure of neuronal activity. Recording neuronal activity in humans is difficult, and studies recording from neurons of the human brain (for example during open skull surgery) are rare. But such studies are astounding in the wealth of detail they reveal about memories and actions that can be accessed by a mere ‘touch’ of a particular nerve cell.

There are several other non-invasive ways of evaluating brain activity in humans and these relate to the behaviour of thousands and millions of neurons that are linked together in particular brain regions. Blood flow in the brain can be measured by brain imaging techniques. Blood flows to regions of the brain in which neuronal activity is highest and that require are plenishment of oxygen and glucose. PET and Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) measure brain activity by detecting changes in blood flow during particular tasks in human subjects EEG and MEG measure electrical and magnetic activity (respectively) arising from tracts of neurons on the surface of the brain. Trans-cranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) can be used to stimulate the neuronal tracts in circum scribed region of the brain and to create temporary disruptions of function. Again, this can be used to investigate the localisation of function in the human brain.

Lesion studies investigate the behavioural consequences of brain damage, and thus give an indication of what functions that area normally sub-serves. The effects of brain lesions can be evaluated for humans. Studies can investigate the effects of manipulating the chemical balance in the brain by using drugs that inhibit or excite certain chemical systems.

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6. MEMORY IN LEARNING Memory and learning are so closely connected that people often confuse them with each other. But the specialists who study was consider them in two distinct phenomena. On the other hand, these specialists define learning as process memory as the ability to that will modify a subsequent behaviour. We learn a new language by studying it, and then we speak it using our memory to retrieve the words that we have learned.

Memory is essential to learning because it lets to store and retrieve the information that we learn. Memory is basically nothing more than the record left by a learning process.

Thus, memory depends on learning. But learning also depends on memory because the knowledge stored in our memory provides the framework to which you link new knowledge, by association and the more extensive our frameworks of existing knowledge, the more easily we can link new knowledge to it. In addition to being associative, our memory is also a reconstruction.

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6.1. SENSORY, SHORT-TERM AND LONG-TERM MEMORY

Human memory is not a unitary process.

Research suggests that, at the psychological level, various types of memory are at work in human beings. It also seems increasingly likely that these various systems bring different parts of the brain into play.

Types of memory can be classified in a number of ways, depending on the criterion used.

With duration as the criterion, at least three different types of memory can be distinguished which are sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.

Sensory

memory

takes

the

information

provided by the senses and retains it accurately but very briefly. Sensory memory lasts such a short time (from a few hundred milliseconds to one or two seconds) that it is often considered part of the process of perception. Nevertheless, it represents an essential step for storing information in short-term memory.

Short-term memory temporarily records the succession of events in our lives. It may register a face that we see in the street, or a telephone number that we over hear someone giving out, but this information will quickly disappear forever unless we make a conscious effort to retain it. Short-term memory has a storage capacity of only about seven items and lasts only a few dozen seconds. Just as sensory memory is a necessary step for short-term memory, short-term memory is a necessary step toward the next stage of retention, long-term memory.

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Long-term memory not only stores all the significant events that mark our lives, it lets us retain the meanings of words and the physical skills that we have learned. Its capacity seems unlimited, and it can last days, months, years, or even an entire lifetime! But it is far from infallible. It sometimes distorts the facts, and it tends to become less reliable as we age.

6.2. DIFFERENT TYPES OF LONGTERM MEMORY Long-term memory as a whole is defined by the

criterion

of

long

duration. But other criteria can be applied to break down

the

complex

phenomenon of memory into separate components.

One such criterion is whether or not the long-term memory in question can be verbalized. On the basis of this criterion, two main forms of long-term memory can be distinguished.

The first is declarative memory: memory of all those things that we are aware of remembering and can describe in words, such as birthday, or the meaning of the word "cradle", or what we ate last night. This form of memory is also called explicit memory, because we can name and describe each of these remembered things explicitly.

The other form of long-term memory is non-declarative memory. It is also known as implicit memory, because express it by means other than words. For example, when we ride a bike, juggle some balls or simply tie your shoelaces, you are expressing memories of motor skills that do not require the use of language. Such "motor memories" are just one type of implicit memory.

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7. HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR MEMORY A strong memory depends on the health and vitality of the brain. Whether as a student studying for final exams, a working professional interested in doing all we can to stay mentally sharp, or a senior looking to preserve and enhance our grey matter as we age, there are lots of things we can do to improve our memory and mental performance.

The human brain has an astonishing ability to adapt and change even into old age. This ability is known as neuroplasticity. With the right stimulation, our brain can form new neural pathways, alter existing connections, and adapt and react in ever-changing ways.

The brain’s incredible ability to reshape itself holds true when it comes to learning and memory. We can harness the natural power of neuroplasticity to increase the cognitive abilities, enhance the ability to learn new information, and improve memory.

Tip 1: Do not skimp on exercise or sleep When you exercise the body, you exercise the brain Treating your body well can enhance your ability to process and recall information. Physical exercise increases oxygen to your brain and reduces the risk for disorders that lead to memory loss, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Exercise may also enhance the effects of helpful brain chemicals and protect brain cells.

Improve your memory by sleeping on it When you are sleep deprived, your brain cannot operate at full capacity. Creativity, problem-solving abilities, and critical thinking skills are compromised. Whether you are

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studying, working, or trying to juggle life’s many demands, sleep deprivation is a recipe for disaster.

But sleep is critical to learning and memory in an even more fundamental way.

Research shows that sleep is necessary for memory consolidation, with the key memoryenhancing activity occurring during the deepest stages of sleep.

Tip 2: Make time for friends and fun Healthy relationships: the ultimate memory booster?

Humans are highly social animals. We are not meant to survive, let alone thrive, in isolation. Relationships stimulate our brains, interacting with others may be the best kind of brain exercise.

Research shows that have meaningful relationships and a strong support system are vital not only to emotional health, but also to brain health. In one recent study from the Harvard School of Public Health, for example, researchers found that people with the most active social lives had the slowest rate of memory decline.

There are many ways to start taking advantage of the brain and memory-boosting benefits of socializing. Volunteer, join a club, and make it a point to see friends more often, or reach out over the phone.

Laughter is good for your brain You have heard that laughter is the best medicine, and that holds true for the brain and the memory as well as the body. Unlike emotional responses, which are limited to specific areas of the brain, laughter engages multiple regions across the whole brain.

Furthermore, listening to jokes and working out punch lines activates areas of the brain vital to learning and creativity. As psychologist Daniel Goleman notes in his book Emotional Intelligence,“laughter…seems to help people think more broadly and associate more freely.”

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Looking for ways to bring more laughter in your life? 

Laugh at yourself. Share your embarrassing moments. The best way to take ourselves less seriously is to talk about the times when we took ourselves too seriously.



When you hear laughter, move toward it. Most of the time, people are very happy to share something funny because it gives them an opportunity to laugh again and feed off the humour you find in it. When you hear laughter, seek it out and ask.



Spend time with fun, playful people. These are people who laugh easily—both at themselves and at life’s absurdities—and who routinely find the humour in everyday events. Their playful point of view and laughter are contagious.



Surround yourself with reminders to lighten up. Keep a toy on your desk or in your car. Put up a funny poster in your office. Choose a computer screensaver that makes you laugh. Frame photos of you and your family or friends having fun.



Pay attention to children and emulate them. They are the experts on playing, taking life lightly, and laughing.

Tip 3: Keep stress in check The stress-busting, memory-boosting benefits of meditation The scientific evidence for the mental health benefits of meditation continues to pile up. Studies show that meditation helps improve many different types of conditions, including depression, anxiety, chronic pain, diabetes, and high blood pressure. Meditation also can improve focus, concentration, creativity, memory, and learning and reasoning skills.

Meditation works its “magic” by changing the actual brain. Brain images show that regular meditators have more activity in the left prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain associated with feelings of joy and equanimity. Meditation also increases the thickness of the cerebral cortex and encourages more connections between brain cells—all of which increases mental sharpness and memory ability.

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Tip 4: Eat a brain-boosting diet Just as the body needs fuel, so does the brain. You probably already know that a diet based on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, “healthy” fats (such as olive oil, nuts, fish) and lean protein will provide lots of health benefits, but such a diet can also improve memory. But for brain health, it is not just what you eat and also what you do not eat. The following nutritional tips will help boost your brainpower and reduce your risk of dementia: 

Get omega-3s. More and more evidence indicates that omega-3 fatty acids are particularly beneficial for brain health. Fish is a particularly rich source of omega-3, especially cold water “fatty fish” such as salmon, tuna, halibut, trout, mackerel, sardines, and herring. In addition to boosting brainpower, eating fish may also lower your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. If you’re not a fan of seafood, consider non-fish sources of omega-3s such as walnuts, ground flaxseed, flaxseed oil, winter squash, kidney and pinto beans, spinach, broccoli, pumpkin seeds, and soybeans.



Limit calories and saturated fat. Research shows that diets high in saturated fat (from sources such as red meat, whole milk, butter, cheese, cream, and ice cream) increase your risk of dementia and impair concentration and memory. Eating too many calories in later life can also increase your risk of cognitive impairment. Talk to your doctor or dietician about developing a healthy eating plan.



Eat more fruit and vegetables. Produce is packed with antioxidants, substances that protect your brain cells from damage. Colourful fruits and vegetables are particularly good antioxidant "super food" sources. Try leafy green vegetables such as spinach, kale, broccoli, romaine lettuce, chard, and arugula, and fruit such as bananas, apricots, mangoes, cantaloupe, and watermelon.



Drink green tea. Green tea contains polyphenols, powerful antioxidants that protect against free radicals that can damage brain cells. Among many other benefits, regular consumption of green tea may enhance memory and mental alertness and slow brain aging.

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Tip 5: Give your brain a workout By the time you have reached adulthood, your brain has developed millions of neural pathways that help you process and recall information quickly, solve familiar problems, and execute familiar tasks with a minimum of mental effort. But if you always stick to these wellworn paths, you are not giving your brain the stimulation it needs to keep growing and developing. You have to shake things up from time to time! Try taking a new route home from work or the grocery store, visiting new places at the weekend, or reading different kinds of books.

Memory, like muscular strength, requires you to “use it or lose it.” The more you work out your brain, the better you will be able to process and remember information. The best brain exercises break your routine and challenge you to use and develop new brain pathways. Activities that require using your hands are a great way to exercise your brain.

Playing a musical instrument, juggling, enjoying a game of ping pong (table tennis), making pottery, knitting, or needlework are activities that exercise the brain by challenging hand-eye coordination, spatial-temporal reasoning, and creativity.

The brain exercise you choose can be virtually anything, so long as it meets the following three criteria: 1. It’s new. No matter how intellectually demanding the activity, if it’s something you’re already good at, it’s not a good brain exercise. The activity needs to be something that’s unfamiliar and out of your comfort zone.

2. It’s challenging. Anything that takes some mental effort and expands your knowledge will work. Examples include learning a new language, instrument, or sport, or tackling a challenging crossword or Sudoku puzzle.

3. It’s fun. Physical and emotional enjoyment is important in the brain’s learning process. The more interested and engaged you are in the activity, the more likely you’ll be to continue doing it and the greater the benefits you’ll experience. The activity should be challenging, yes, it should also be something that is fun and enjoyable to you. Make an activity more pleasurable by appealing to your senses— playing music while you do it, or rewarding yourself afterwards with a favorite treat, for example.

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8. SIMPLE TRICKS TO SHARPEN THINKING AND MEMORY SKILLS Using these memory-enhancing techniques can help improve the ability to learn new information and retain it over time.

1. Repeat One of the golden rules of learning and memory is repeat, repeat, repeat. The brain also responds to novelty so repeating something in a different way or at a different time will make the most of the novelty effect and allow building stronger memories. Examples of using repletion include: 

Taking notes.



Repeating a name after heard it for the first time.



Repeating or paraphrasing what someone says.

2. Organize A day planner or smart phone calendar can help to keep track of appointments and activities and can also serve as a journal in which we write anything that would like to remember. Writing down and organizing information reinforces learning. 

Try jotting down conversations, thoughts, experiences.



Review current and previous day’s entries at breakfast and dinner.



Use a planner and not a smart phone, keep it in the same spot at home and take it when leave.

3. Visualize Learning faces and names is a particularly hard task for most people. In addition to repeating a person’s name by associate the name with an image. Visualization strengthens the association we are making between the face and the name. For example: 

Link the name Sandy with the image of a beach, and imagine Sandy on the beach.

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4. Cue When having difficulty recalling a particular word or fact, we can cue our self by giving related details or “talking around” the word, name, or fact. Other practical ways to cue include: 

Using alarms or a kitchen timer to remind you of tasks or appointments.



Placing an object associated with the task we must do in a prominent place at home.

For example, want to order tickets to a play, leave a newspaper ad for the play near your telephone or computer.

5. Group When trying to remember a long list of items, it can help to group the items in sets of three to five, just as we would to remember a phone number. This strategy capitalizes on organization and building associations, and helps to extend the capacity of our short-term memory by chunking information together instead of trying to remember each piece of information independently. For example: 

If we have a list of 15 things on your grocery list, we can group the items by category, such as dairy, produce, canned goods, and frozen foods.

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9. CONCLUSION In theory this means that the importance of the brain for our learning process. So do not let the workings of the brain to subconsciously guard until there is a vacancy. It is not true if the brain overload filled with the knowledge which can damages the nerves of the brain, but if ever drilled it will be very good for the brain. Thus, there are some tips for improving our memories in learning in daily life. For example, does not skip the sleep, make fun with friend, control the stress carefully, eat a lot of nutritionals food, and give brain works.

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REFERENCES

1. Melinda Smith, M.A. and Lawrence Robinson (2015), How to Improve Your Memory. Retrieved from: http://www.helpguide.org/articles/memory/how-to-improve-your-memory.html

2. (Patricia Anne Kinser, 2000), Brain Structures and their Functions. Retrieved from: http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/kinser/Structure1.html.

3. Memory and learning. Retrieved from the brain from top to bottom http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/d/d_07/d_07_p/d_07_p_tra/d_07_p_tra.html.

4. The Neuroscience of Learning: 41 Terms Every Teacher Should Know. Retrieved from: http://www.teachthought.com/learning/neuroscience-of-learning-41-terms-everyteacher-should-know/

5. The brain, Brattleboro, Vermont (1998). Retrieved from professional development resource. http://www.communityworksinstitute.org/cwpublications/thebrain/thebrain.pdf

6. Left Brain Vs. Right Brain Function in Learning, 2011. Retrieved from: http://www.funderstanding.com/brain/left-brain-vs-right-brain-function-in-learning/

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