How We Learn: Why Brains Learn Better than Any Machine... for Now

Dehaene (Consciousness in the Brain), a professor of experimental psychology at the Collège de France, devotes this detailed, sometimes hard-going, but stimulating study to the science of learning. The first half largely concerns brain physiology, touching on, among other subjects, how learning can physically change the brain, such as by thickening the cortex. Dehaene also refutes the idea of the “blank slate” infant brain, noting that “even a baby... encodes the external world using abstract and systematic rules—an ability that eludes... conventional artificial neural networks.” The book’s second, less technical and more widely accessible half explores the “four pillars” of learning: attention, active engagement, error feedback, and consolidation of information (for which REM sleep is especially key) and discusses how enjoyment can assist learning—Dehaene notes that laughter seems to enhance curiosity and memory. While calling for more research into the field, he issues his most potentially controversial pronouncement, at least for neurodiversity advocates: “We all face similar hurdles in learning and the same teaching methods can surmount them.” At times not an easy book to comprehend, it will nonetheless be a richly instructive one for educators, parents, and others interested in how to most effectively foster the pursuit of knowledge. Agent: Max Brockman, Brockman, Inc. (Jan.)