Change, Technically

• You deserve better brain research

  SHOW NOTES:For an example of a consideration of learning with information searching, a paper by Saskia Giebl and co-authors explored students learning basic programming concepts aided with a search engine and how active problem-solving before the search helps encourage stronger learning. This paper draws from a lot of the classic learning science/memory effects that Cat references: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1475725720961593 “Cognitive offloading” is a concept with a lot of interesting work behind it, and cognitive offloading can be as broad as just making a grocery list. Exploring task performance, and the mixed costs and benefits associated with cognitive offloading, can be started with this review and its citations: https://www.nature.com/articles/s44159-025-00432-2 Andrew Hogan wrote a nice post for parents concerned about their children's learning and brain health here, centering on helping people understand the limitations of study methodology: https://www.parent.tech/p/should-your-kids-use-chatgpt-for-homework-c028Robert and Elizabeth Bjork and colleagues have published many relevant papers on the generation effect and other aspects of learning and metacognition about learning. Here are a few references Cat recommends: https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-psych-113011-143823 https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/BF03196872 https://escholarship.org/content/qt56w8q3z9/qt56w8q3z9.pdf Because Ashley loves giving people an opportunity to play with the data for themselves, here’s an online interactive textbook with an introduction to EEG: https://neuraldatascience.io/7-eeg/introduction.html Research on the seductive power of putting a brain on it: https://direct.mit.edu/jocn/article/20/3/470/4473/The-Seductive-Allure-of-Neuroscience-Explanations https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/bjep.12162 Paper which nicely explains the dDTF technique step-by-step and applies it to understand motor imagery: https://braininformatics.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40708-022-00154-8 Learn more about Ashley: https://ashleyjuavinett.com/ https://mastodon.social/@analog_ashley analog-ashley.bsky.social Learn more about Cat: https://www.drcathicks.com/ https://mastodon.social/@grimalkina grimalkina.bsky.social

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• Dire wolves and bullshitters

  More reading & sources:Fantastic article which echos many of our arguments here: https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/04/18/wildlife-extinction-dire-wolf-endangered-species/Science article which summarizes dire wolves news & science: https://www.science.org/content/article/what-s-deal-dire-wolves-iconic-predators-may-have-been-neanderthals-wolf-worldArticle which leaked an internal memo from US interior secretary which said, “Pick your favorite species and call up Colossal.”: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/04/10/trump-endangered-species-protections-dire-wolves/... which is also discussed in this very good Vox reporting: https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/407781/dire-wolves-deextinction-colossal-biosciencesUpdates on recent cuts to NSF: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01263-0Notes:Ashley said bioRxiv is federally-funded, she meant to say the Sequence Read Archive (SRA) archive, where Colossal posted the dire wolf genome, is federally fundedHere’s what Embark does tell you about “Wolfiness”: https://help.embarkvet.com/hc/en-us/articles/360053867714-What-is-WolfinessLearn more about Ashley: https://ashleyjuavinett.com/ https://mastodon.social/@analog_ashley analog-ashley.bsky.social Learn more about Cat: https://www.drcathicks.com/ https://mastodon.social/@grimalkina grimalkina.bsky.social

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• Who's afraid of math?

  SHOW NOTES: Cat wants you to know she read a *lot* of research for this episode. Major highlights we specifically drew from, and quote sources, were aross three reviews: Cat found this one especially helpful and refers to it the most, and this review also proposes the Interpretation Account of math anxiety: Ramirez, G., Shaw, S. T., & Maloney, E. A. (2018). Math anxiety: Past research, promising interventions, and a new interpretation framework. Educational psychologist, 53(3), 145-164. Amland, T., Grande, G., Scherer, R., Lervåg, A., & Melby-Lervåg, M. (2024). Cognitive factors underlying mathematical skills: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin. Chang, H., & Beilock, S. L. (2016). The math anxiety-math performance link and its relation to individual and environmental factors: A review of current behavioral and psychophysiological research. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 10, 33–38.We briefly mentioned tDCS. An introduction to this technique (used both for therapeutic applications and in scientific studies) can be found here: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5702643/ The specific study Cat & Ashley talk about, with math anxious adults, is this one: Sarkar, A., Dowker, A., & Cohen, K. R. (2014). Cognitive enhancement or cognitive cost: Trait-specific outcomes of brain stimulation in the case of mathematics anxiety. The Journal of Neuroscience, 34, 16605–16610. doi:10.1523/jneurosci.3129-14.2014Cat also mentions the connection between teachers’ gender stereotype endorsements and teachers’ math anxiety, and students’ math achievement. This study is here: Beilock, S. L., Gunderson, E. A., Ramirez, G., & Levine, S. C. (2010). Female teachers’ math anxiety affects girls’ math achievement. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(5), 1860-1863. Further helpful reading & evidence about both parental and teachers’ impact on math attitudes and gender from the same authors: Gunderson, E. A., Ramirez, G., Levine, S. C., & Beilock, S. L. (2012). The role of parents and teachers in the development of gender-related math attitudes. Sex roles, 66, 153-166.Learn more about Ashley: https://ashleyjuavinett.com/ https://mastodon.social/@analog_ashley analog-ashley.bsky.social Learn more about Cat: https://www.drcathicks.com/ https://mastodon.social/@grimalkina grimalkina.bsky.social

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• Stepping out of the silo

  How do human beings work together and learn to be, well, human? Stepping out of our comfortable and cozy silos and learning to communicate our value in new contexts might just be the key to unlocking shared innovation.In this episode, we explore this question with Cristine Legare, a psychology professor at the University of Texas at Austin interested in the interplay of the universal human mind and the variations of culture, who studies cognitive and cultural evolution and the design of social and behavioral change interventions.The Center for Applied Cognitive Science, which Cristine founded and directs: https://www.centerforappliedcogsci.com/Her website, where you can keep up with more of her work as well as her upcoming book on ritual: https://cristinelegare.com/ Cat also mentions the book How Infrastructure Works, which is by Deb Chachra and can be found here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/612711/how-infrastructure-works-by-deb-chachra/Cat mentions an overlay journal she and her collaborators write to translate more scientific papers for software teams; it's called The Developer Science Review and you can read our issues here: https://dsl.pubpub.org/issuesLearn more about Ashley: https://ashleyjuavinett.com/ https://mastodon.social/@analog_ashley analog-ashley.bsky.social Learn more about Cat: https://www.drcathicks.com/ https://mastodon.social/@grimalkina grimalkina.bsky.social

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• The NIH pays off beyond our dreams

  In a special edition of Change, Technically, Ashley and Cat get into the facts of the NIH: what it does, how it works, and the consequences of disrupting its essential work. The NIH creates enormous economic impact, 400,000 jobs across the US, and sets science in motion that touches all of us.How to contact your representatives:Dial (202) 224-3121Tell autoresponder your representative name or zip code when promptedSpeak directly to staffer or leave voicemail: “My name is ___, I’m a constituent in [town]. (If clinician/scientist, say so) The NIH freeze harms research and patients and must be lifted immediately. I also believe that it is important to maintain funding mechanisms that improve and diversify the NIH workforce, including those labeled as 'diversity or DEI efforts'”Relevant executive orders:https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-radical-and-wasteful-government-dei-programs-and-preferencing/https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/initial-rescissions-of-harmful-executive-orders-and-actions/Study on new drugs and NIH funding:E. Galkina Cleary, J.M. Beierlein, N.S. Khanuja, L.M. McNamee, F.D. Ledley, Contribution of NIH funding to new drug approvals 2010–2016, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 115 (10) 2329-2334, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1715368115 (2018).United for Medical Research resource where you can look up NIH impact for your state along with many resources about NIH impact: https://www.unitedformedicalresearch.org/ News articles on pausing of NIH meetings and travel:https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00231-yhttps://www.science.org/content/article/trump-hits-nih-devastating-freezes-meetings-travel-communications-and-hiringhttps://www.cnn.com/2025/01/24/health/nih-scientists-purchase-supplies-trump-administration-pauses-communications/index.htmlInformation about STARTneuro:http://startneuro.ucsd.eduhttps://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/transfer-students-triumph-class-2024#manuel Support the STARTneuro program directly: https://crowdsurf.ucsd.edu/campaigns/support-the-startneuro-program-at-uc-san-diegoLearn more about Ashley: https://ashleyjuavinett.com/ https://mastodon.social/@analog_ashley analog-ashley.bsky.social Learn more about Cat: https://www.drcathicks.com/ https://mastodon.social/@grimalkina grimalkina.bsky.social

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