Learning and the "Social Brain"

In an Oct. 13 Distinguished Lecture at NSF, an internationally recognized early language and brain development researcher asks how social learning in young children can trigger other types of learning

New findings suggest that at birth, young children are prepared to learn from so-called social agents--other members in a group or society. Findings also suggest the "social brain" enhances and constrains social learning over a person's lifetime. But, beyond learning social skills, can social interaction be used to acquire specific types of learning?

In this National Science Foundation (NSF) Distinguished Lecture, Patricia Kuhl, director of NSF's LIFE Science of Learning Center,  says yes.  Kuhl discusses how studies of language acquisition through live social interaction led to the theoretical formulation that social interaction acts as a "gate" that triggers other types of learning.

Ultimately, Kuhl will show how these new findings provide the foundation for a new science of learning that promises to transform the practice of education.

This Distinguished Lecture is sponsored by NSF's Directorate for Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences.

What: NSF SBE Distinguished Lecture

Who: Patricia Kuhl, Director of NSF's LIFE Science of Learning Center and co-director of the Institute for Brain and Learning Sciences at the University of Washington

When: October 13, 2010 at 11 a.m. EDT

Where: Room 110, Stafford I

4121 Wilson Boulevard

- Room 595

Arlington, Va. 22230

Metro: Orange Line to Ballston

Note: Visitors must RSVP to Bobbie Mixon in the Office of Legislative and Public Affairs to register for a visitor pass for access to the Stafford I building. Contact Bobbie at bmixon@nsf.gov or (703) 292-8485.

-NSF-

This article was sponsored by Police Books.