Reversing characters (digits and letters) when writing, and complete mirror writing, raise one of the oldest and most mysterious questions in developmental and educational psychology: Why do five-year-old children write symbols (e.g., [reversed E] for E) they have neither learnt nor seen? Attempts to draw up a complete explanatory theory of…

The following article presents a series of investigations, reflections, and quotes about neuroscience, education, and psychology. Each area is specialized in some matters but at some point they share territory and mutually benefit one another, and help us to increasingly understand the complex world of learning, the brain, and human behavior. We…

Parts 1 and 2 in this four-part series of articles (Crossland, 2016, 2017) discussed the recent research from neuroscience linked to concepts from cognitive development that brought Piaget's theories into the 21st century and showed the most effective provision towards more optimal learning strategies. Then the discussion moved onto Demetriou's…

Each year, the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) releases a list of scientific advances that represent significant progress in the field of autism research. The "Summary of Advances" provides short, plain language summaries of the top research breakthroughs selected by the IACC from a pool of research articles nominated by…

Each year, the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) releases a list of scientific advances that represent significant progress in the field. The "2017 Summary of Advances" provides short, plain language summaries of the top research breakthroughs selected by the IACC from a pool of research articles nominated by the members.…

Mental rotation performance has been found to produce one of the largest sex differences in cognition accompanied by sex differences in functional cerebral asymmetry. Although sex differences in mental rotation performance can be reliably demonstrated as early as age 5 years old, that is, long before puberty, no data exist as to whether…

Brain lesions to the white matter in peritrigonal regions, periventricular leukomalacia, in children who were born prematurely represent an important model for studying limitations on brain development. The lesional pattern is of early origin and bilateral, that constrains the compensatory potential of the brain. We suggest that (i) topography and…

In 1994, America took a giant step backward in understanding intelligence and how it can be cultivated. Richard Herrnstein, a psychology professor at Harvard University, and Charles Murray, a political scientist with the American Enterprise Institute, published "The Bell Curve," a best-selling book that was controversial among…

There are several myths about neuroscientific findings that are widespread in education. Some of these myths are left brain/right brain, critical periods for learning, and gender differences in the brain. Belief in these "neuromyths" can negatively affect how we teach children. But ignoring important findings from neuroscience can be just as…

Each year, the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) releases its annual list of scientific advances that represent significant progress in the field. The 20 studies selected have given new insight into the underlying biology of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and potential risk factors, tested approaches for improving early screening…

Brains and gender, separately and in their interrelatedness, are hot items today in popular journals and academic literature. It is in particular the complexity of the interdependence of physical-, psychological-, and contextual-related developments of feminization in education that we focus on these contributions. We argue that a combination of…

Zebra finch song behavior is sexually dimorphic: males sing and females do not. The neural system underlying this behavior is sexually dimorphic, and this sex difference is easy to quantify. During development, the zebra finch song system can be altered by steroid hormones, specifically estradiol, which actually masculinizes it. Because of the…

The fourth edition of "Sex Differences in Cognitive Abilities" critically examines the breadth of research on this complex and controversial topic, with the principal aim of helping the reader to understand where sex differences are found--and where they are not. Since the publication of the third edition, there have been many exciting and…

Eliot, a neuroscientist who has analyzed gender differences in children's brains, asserts that--contrary to the widely held idea that boys' and girls' brains are hardwired differently--few differences exist in the neural structures and neurochemistry of boys' and girls' brains. Actual ability differences between the genders are quite small as…

This article focuses on two early attempts at bridging neuroscience and education, made by Henry Herbert Donaldson (1857-1938), a neurologist, and Reuben Post Halleck (1859-1936), an educator. Their works, respectively entitled "The Growth of the Brain: A Study of the Nervous System in Relation to Education" (1895) and "The Education of the…