Emotions affect how memories are processed, stored, and retrieved, which also impacts how learning takes place. Perhaps more importantly, emotions impact cognitive processes and learning. Neuroscience shows the ways thoughts are processed depends on one's cultural context and also emotional states. Thinking styles may be also linked to the learning process, as Zhang & Sternberg (2010) point out, and thinking styles are themselves related to cultural variables. The ways people process information therefore has to do with social learning as well as emotional learning and memory. Certain types of emotions may be more conducive to specific types of learning styles or learning behaviors. Emotions can also promote synchronized or chaotic neurological responses. These findings have implications for classroom design and pedagogy.Wealth means far more than just possession of material goods. As Zhang & Sternberg (2010) point out, capital refers not only to assets in the traditional sense but also to cultural capital, human capital, and social capital. A combination of different types of capital creates the type of "wealth" needed to succeed in a competitive environment. These findings have implications for educational policy and social services, but there is a complex interaction of individual variables and cultural variables in learning.

References

Zhang, L.F. & Sternberg, R.J. (2010). Learning in a cross-cultural perspective. Learning and Cognition.

Week 2

The study described in "Self-Regulated Learning and Social Cognitive Theory" in the text talks about the concept of self-regulation and agency in terms of social cognitive theory. Results show that it is possible to integrate these theories and concepts into classroom learning. Agency refers mainly to the ability to make choices through self will, and refers also to motivational theories. Tied into the Zhang & Sternberg (2010) article, the study on self-regulated learning and social cognitive theory links the way social learning occurs with the ways self-directed learning and motivational theory also work to create optimal learning environments and conditions. Built on the premises of both cognitive psychology and the study of human development, these findings have tremendous implications for creating new pedagogies of diversity.

In terms of how these findings influence my past or current beliefs about knowledge development, I believe that the study simply substantiates what I already intuited. There are a number of different variables that impact learning, among them the social environment and norms in the classroom, the methods used by the teacher to communicate not just knowledge but modes...

& Sternberg, R.J. (2010). Learning in a cross-cultural perspective. Learning and Cognition.
Week 3

My assigned article was "Memory," and the findings directly relate to my own personal experiences linked with memory, cognition, and learning. These findings offer neuroscientific evidence for the link between memory and learning, showing how learning is linked to memory retrieval and the creation of new memory. Memory is a complex cognitive and neurobiological phenomenon, because there is no one area of the brain in which memory is stored. Rather, memory is a complex array of impulses and signals that are also linked to emotionality. The research findings support my current beliefs that learning is complex, linked to both memory and emotional development. There are several variables about knowledge development about which I was unaware, including the specific neurobiological constructs and variables mentioned.

Based on the information presented in all five articles from the text, it is clear that false memories do occur because of the way the brain works. There are ample studies about how memories can be implanted in people, and that it is easy to mistake false memory for fact. This of course has implications for manifestation of things in the future, as what a person imagines or believes becomes real for the same reason that the memory is real. Intelligence as Sternberg (2010) describes it is inheritable but can also be malleable. I believe that access to intelligence building resources and tools and multiple intelligences also plays into the concept of learning and intelligence.