Üsküdar Üniversitesi Faculty of Medicine Head of Neuroscience Department Prof. Dr. Sultan Tarlacı, participated as a speaker in the TOGSES Digital event organized by the Community Volunteers Foundation (TOG). Tarlacı, who delivered his speech under the title “Brain and Learning,” drew attention to the importance of emotions in learning. Tarlacı said; “Cognitive and intellectual learning cannot be separated from emotion in any way. When emotion is integrated into learning, it becomes much more robust and powerful.”
“Learning Becomes Much More Robust When Emotion is Integrated”
Tarlacı, mentioning that feeding with positive emotions facilitates learning; “Emotions are important in learning. Cognitive and intellectual learning cannot be separated from emotion in any way. When emotion is integrated into learning, it becomes much more robust and powerful. You don't forget your teachers' reactions in exams you failed. Because you were very emotional at that time. It's etched into your mind, into your brain neurons. Even thirty years later, you can say things like, 'The teacher told me this, I told him that, then he kicked me out the door.' You remember very sharply. Because your emotional load is very high, and your learning has become robust. The effect of emotion lasts a long time. That's why adding joy, humor, drama, games, dialogue to learning processes, the teacher appreciating the student, feeding them with positive emotions facilitates learning. But if the teacher doesn't do this, you can add comedy to subjects you find difficult to learn among yourselves. Its permanence will be much clearer and longer. Since the right brain looks at events much more holistically, and the left looks at them in parts, we don't actually enter a learning process by separating our brain. When it arrives, it goes to both halves of our brain; the brain processes the parts and the whole simultaneously.” He said.
“Attention is Necessary and Essential for Learning”
Prof. Dr. Sultan Tarlacı, stating that our receptivity will be much more robust and powerful in all situations when we bring out attention; “Attention is important in the learning process. When you bring out your attention, your receptivity becomes much more robust and powerful in all situations. Because attention is necessary and essential for learning. Of course, this applies to focused attention. Dispersed attention, meaning attention that has shifted here and there, is difficult. Therefore, it is necessary to know how to focus attention. If individuals have an attention deficit or attention drift, and it becomes very difficult to deal with distractors, the learning process will definitely be very challenging. In such cases, attention-enhancing applications can certainly be used. Or there are some brain modulation methods that increase attention. Attention-enhancing medications are also available. A real attention deficit disrupts and greatly complicates the learning process.” He used the expressions.
“Humans Forget by Nature”
Tarlacı emphasized that repetition is the way to prevent forgetting; “Don't be sad when you forget, because humans forget by nature. Forgetting is a characteristic of the brain. Like eating and drinking water, forgetting is also a characteristic of the brain. The brain forgets. It cannot always record. This is normal. Due to the plastic structure of the human brain, this is normal. Because that brain is made of a kind of flesh. To change the structure of this flesh, one needs to sculpt it. You need to apply pressure, force, and give the same stimulus repeatedly so that its structure changes. In fact, the same stimulus should be given in different languages, with different symbols, and in different ways so that there is no habituation, no adaptation, and awareness increases. The way to prevent forgetting is repetition. Repeating after ten to twenty minutes after the topic is finished, then repeating after twenty-four hours, then repeating after a week, and if possible, repeating again after a month. Repetition is necessary and essential to solidify learning and prevent forgetting. It needs to be etched and processed into the brain through continuous repetition.” He spoke.
News: Ebranur Özdemir