Dr. Immordino-​​Yang: How Emotions & Social Factors Impact Learning

Navigating a Complex World

• Basic drives of every species: survive and make more of oneself
• Physiological mechanisms become motivational mechanisms
• Adaptive mechanisms shared with all life forms, but look different in different life forms
• Constantly adjusting for the needs of the internal organism and external environment demands

Emotions and Development

• Emotions based in pain and emotions based in something rewarding or pleasurable recruit the same brain systems, including the hypothalamus
• Emotions become complex when they pertain to a story that is conjured in our minds, rather than what can be directly witnessed
• Development of emotions across the lifespan: from basic physiological states to more complex narratives, beliefs, values, and identities
• Emotions are fundamentally grounded in our ability to experience the world in a real, physical, embodied sense, but elaborated far beyond that

Hierarchical Organization of Emotions

• Similar to the hierarchical organization in the visual system
• Basic building blocks of emotions learned through development, with countless examples mapping to pain, including emotional and physical pain
• When there’s a narrative or story added, it changes something about the representation of emotion
• Emotions become more dynamic, inferential, and complex as we develop and learn to notice and build stories out of our experiences
  Emotions, Storytelling, and Brain Activation
• Emotions can be triggered by physical events or by stories that require contextual knowledge 
• Brain scanning experiments show differences in activation when processing simple physical events vs. complex stories 
  • Default mode network activated when processing complex stories
  • Activation of default mode network when asked to think about nothing or rest 
    • Leads to daydreaming and imagining various scenarios
• Activation of default mode network when processing stories that require contextual knowledge 
  • Example: Losing a spouse vs. breaking an ankle
  • Complex stories activate default mode systems uniquely
• Experiments with true stories that induce admiration for skill or character 
  • Activation of default mode systems can be predicted based on psychological reactions to stories
  • Layering of physical actions, story construction, and self-​​awareness in the brain
  • Meaning process makes emotions uniquely human

Color Perception and Emotions

• Color perception varies among individuals 
  • Distribution of cone photopigments in the eye can lead to different color experiences
• Shared experiences, like listening to a speech or music, can evoke emotions 
  • Emotions may be similar or different among individuals
  • Example: Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech or music from adolescence
    Adolescence, Emotions, and Music
• Music in adolescence helps recognize extreme feeling states 
• Different music can help prepare for different emotional states needed for tasks
• Observing others and listening to music can influence our understanding of emotions

Narrative Distancing and Emotional Responses

• Some people have more of a buffer between their experience of the outside world (exterocception) and their internal landscape
• Lack of narrative distancing: being transported by a story and feeling the emotions of the characters
• People have different levels of narrative distancing based on their experiences

Emotions, Feelings, and Cultural Values

• We impose our cultural values and beliefs onto our experiences
• We filter input and perceive the world through our own lenses
• We can experience new feelings, which are complex elaborations of physiological states and the stories we tell ourselves about their meaning

Dehumanization and Genocide

• Dehumanization allows people to shift their story set and bring another set of values and beliefs into the space
• Studies show that under certain conditions, almost anyone would respond to an authoritarian figure and torture someone else
• We have all the neural circuitry components inside of us for both good and bad emotions and actions
  Developing Dispositions and Mental Flexibility
• Importance of questioning our own motives and deconstructing our assumptions 
• Engage with other people’s perspectives systematically
• Develop a “veto system” for checking our motivations against others’ experiences
• Emotional disposition and mental flexibility key to personal growth and understanding

Education and Exposure to Different Perspectives

• Encourage young people to unpack their own beliefs and make their thinking visible
• Expose them to developmentally appropriate opportunities to grow as thinkers, individuals, and community members
• Shift the focus of education from learning outcomes to engaging with complex perspectives and ideas
• Actively discourage punishment for playing with ideas and engaging with different beliefs

Social Media and Divergent Trajectories

• Importance of following diverse accounts to challenge oneself and learn different perspectives
• Avoid siloing oneself in one’s thinking or exposure to different ideas
• Recognize the clash of divergent trajectories during events like the pandemic

Concrete Steps for Education and Exposure

• Query young people about their beliefs and encourage them to unpack their own thoughts
• Teach them to examine their thinking and engage with complex perspectives
• Focus on developing mental flexibility and emotional disposition in education
• Encourage exposure to different ideas and ideologies without necessarily adopting them completely
  Engaging Students in Learning
• Emotions play a crucial role in learning 
  • Emotions dictate what we think about and learn from
  • Emotions should be about ideas, not just outcomes
• Engage students by setting up rich problem spaces 
  • Problems that pique curiosity and are meaningful to the student
  • Start with what the student is interested in and use academic skills to explore that interest
• Example: Sudanese immigrant student 
  • Struggled with math until presented with a meaningful problem (Xeno’s paradox)
  • Had to learn fractions to solve the problem, which led to fascination with finite and infinite concepts
• Shift focus from metrics to the development of the person 
  • Quality of the “horse” (the person) is more important than what’s in the cart (the metrics)
  • Toolkit of ways of knowing and understanding should serve the development of the person
• Requires developmental skill on the part of educators
  Educational Experiences and Background
• Grew up on a farm, not in an academic family 
• Did not enjoy school as a child, felt out of place
• First experience educating others at age 6 
  • Taught second-​​grade class about fossilized worms in stones found on vacation
• Exposure to students with different backgrounds 
  • Recognized the importance of understanding emotional networks and experiences in education

The Role of Emotion in Learning

• Best instructors combine expertise with intellectual curiosity 
  • Teach from a position of both expert and novice
  • Ignites emotional systems in the learner’s brain
• Allowing students to grapple with complex questions helps them develop critical thinking skills 
  • Encourages intellectual humility and curiosity
  • Supports growth in managing human capacities for both good and evil

The Impact of School Systems on Students

• Traditional school systems can stunt students’ growth and contribute to mental health crises 
  • Fear of allowing young people to have power and agency in their learning
  • Focus on controlling input and output mechanisms for academic rigor and achievement
• Failure to serve students in a way that works for them can lead to struggles later in life 
  • Reflects more on the system than the individual student

The Importance of Personal Experiences in Education

• Understanding one’s own emotional networks and experiences can inform teaching and learning
• Drawing from personal experiences can help educators connect with students and create meaningful learning experiences
  Childhood and Early Experiences
• Fascinated by the natural world and making meaning out of it 
• Struggled with schoolwork but excelled in engaging with others and learning from them
• Participated in various cultural exchange programs and traveled to different countries
• Interested in woodworking, boat building, and learning from different cultural spaces

Teaching Experience

• At 23, had an accident and needed to find a job to support herself
• Convinced Massachusetts Board of Education to let her teach AP biology and physics
• Ended up teaching full-​​time 7^th grade in a diverse school with 81 languages spoken
• Developed an interdisciplinary science curriculum with hands-​​on activities

Realization and Impact

• Realized students were using scientific ways of exploring the world to understand themselves and their backgrounds
• Engaged in discussions about biology, culture, and sociality with students
• Recognized the potential of bringing science to help kids understand their identities and become scholars and intellectuals in a multicultural space
  Exploring Ideas and Emotional Drives in Education
• Studying cognitive neuroscience, language, and cognition to understand developmental perspective 
• Importance of understanding the intersection between biological development and psychological development
• Emotions as the drives that push us to think about particular things
• Importance of engaging with ideas and understanding opposing positions
• Developing spaces of trust where ideas can be dissected and engaged with collectively
• Conversations around reframing the experience, outcomes, and aims of schooling
• Focusing on civic discourse and reasoning, and developing skills for reasoning around ideas
• Balancing ethical, experiential, emotional, and cultural values in education
  Engaging in Deconstruction of Assumptions and Perspectives
• Importance of understanding and appreciating others’ disagreements 
• Reading comments on podcasts and social media can provide insights and criticisms
• Constructive conversations require a certain decorum

Classroom Rules and Debates

• High school debates can help students understand different perspectives
• Swapping sides in a debate can be a great exercise for understanding opposing views

Neurobiology of Emotions and Thoughts

• Processing differences between emotions and thoughts
• Transcendent processing involves distancing oneself from the immediate situation and constructing a narrative
• Default mode network is associated with self-​​awareness and constructing broader inferential narratives

Feeling Safe to Think Together

• Default mode network activation is incompatible with feeling unsafe
• Feeling safe allows for exploration of alternative perspectives and narratives

Multiple Social Media Handles in Japan

• People in Japan have multiple social media handles to embody different versions of themselves safely
• Allows exploration of different dimensions of their persona

Conflating Identities and Understanding Perspectives

• The brain often collapses identities of others for efficiency
• Education system should teach students about their emotional systems and understanding different perspectives
  Cross-​​Cultural Consistency in Emotions and Learning
• Emotions play a significant role in our ability to learn and understand 
• Creating safe spaces for individuals to think together is essential for effective learning and communication

Practical Approaches to Learning and Communication

• Encourage self-​​expression and understanding of personal perspectives (e.g., writing a letter to a teacher)
• Deconstructing and understanding why something bothers us can help manage and engage with it in a new way

Civic Discourse and Deconstructing Ideas

• Deconstructing problematic ideas is critical to understanding and addressing underlying issues
• Canceling or negating ideas without understanding them can lead to further problems

Creating Safe Spaces for Learning and Communication

• Schools should focus on helping students and teachers develop capacities and dispositions for deconstructing and constructing safe cultural spaces
• Trust and safety are essential for effective learning and communication
• Engaging in civic discourse allows for shared understanding and collaboration around core values and goals
  Civic Discourse and Deconstructing Beliefs
• Constructing a space for civic discourse 
  • Supporting one another in deconstructing our own beliefs
  • Aim for understanding and engaging with one another
  • Not necessarily agreeing, but constructing and deconstructing meaning together
• Importance of free speech for everyone 
  • When ideas are buried, they cannot be solved
  • Recognizing the potential for all ideas within ourselves

Mirror Neurons

• Mirror neurons: originally thought to be a special type of neuron that evokes empathic understanding 
  • Recent reviews suggest they may not play a critical role
• No specific “mirror neurons” found, but the brain is organized in convergent and divergent zones 
  • Networks converging and diverging, processing coming together and spreading back out
• Connection to goal-​​directed action and perception 
  • Imposing expectations onto the world, testing those expectations
  • Hypothesis testing through acting and perceiving
• Propensity to engage with others by simulating on the substrate of our own self 
  • Inferring goals, feelings, and outcomes of others’ experiences
  • Layer of learned, lived, cultural developed expectations
  • Perception of reality as we expected it to happen

Cold Exposure and Immunity

• Deliberate cold exposure, such as cold showers, can lead to a spike in adrenaline 
  • Short-​​lived adrenaline spikes can be neuroprotective
  • Chronic stress, however, is not beneficial
• If sick, it is not recommended to continue cold showers
  Discussion with Dr. Mary Helen Immordino-Yang
• Emotions, social interactions, and learning 
• Importance of real-​​world applications in education
• Goal of education should be the development of the person, not just learning 
  • Learning is a means to an end, not the endpoint
  • Focus on how a person changes themselves after learning

Dr. Immordino-​Yang’s Research and Book

• Laboratory website linked in the show notes
• Book: “Emotions, Learning, and the Brain” 
  • Designed for the general public
  • Informative and practical tools