Concrete symbols (e.g., "sun," "run") can be learned in the context of objects and actions, thereby grounding their meaning in the world. However, it is controversial whether a comparable avenue to semantic learning exists for abstract symbols (e.g., "democracy"). When we simulated the putative brain mechanisms of…

Emotion is essential for learning, but brain evidence shows how not all emotional engagement is equivalent. New research by Mary Helen Immordino-Yang and the research team at the USC Center for Affective Neuroscience, Development, Learning, and Education finds that adolescents' dispositions toward emotionally engaged "transcendent…

Despite the recognized importance of addressing belief bias in critical thinking, little is known about the neural activity underlying belief-bias reasoning and its connection to critical thinking. The study utilized event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine the neural responses during belief-bias reasoning and explored the extent to which these…