【推荐3】Ever fought with a problem? Picked up a new skill? Encountered a difficult concept? The language of learning is full of references to parts of the body outside the brain. Perhaps that’s because these phrases suggest something deeper. Researchers are detecting that learning is easier, quicker and more long-lasting if it involves the body.

“In the past, people have argued that as we grow, we become more able to think abstractly (抽象地),” says Andrew Manches, a psychologist at the University of Edinburgh in the UK. Conventional (传统的) thinking might suggest that teachers should help prevent children from using body gestures to prepare them for the adult world. But in truth, the physical world never really leaves our thinking. For example, when we process verbs such as lick, kick and pick, medical scanners show that the parts of our brain that control the muscles in our face, legs and hands, respectively, light up with activity.

Science is beginning to back up the idea that actions really might speak louder than words in the classroom. Spencer Kelly, a psychologist at Colgate University in New York, has found that people spend three times as much time gesturing when they think the message they get across is remarkably important, suggesting that even if only at the subconscious (潜意识的) level, we appreciate the communicative value of our body language. Kelly has also found evidence that a teacher is more appealing to students when he or she uses arm and hand movements to stress points.

Also, some studies indicate that young children obtain more if their teacher uses gestures when explaining a concept. Meanwhile, Sunsan Wagner Cook, a psychologist at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, has found that children pick up new concepts more effectively, if they are taught to mirror and repeat gestures their teacher uses.

【推荐3】Scientists have long said getting a good night’s sleep is important to your health. Now, an American team of scientists reports that too much sleep might be connected with cognitive decline. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine did the sleep study. Their findings were published in the September issue of Brain.

The study examined 100 adults who had been under medical observation for cognitive ability for 3 years. The average age of the study subjects was 65. Every year, they were asked to complete several tests for signs of cognitive decline—the higher the score, the less cognitive decline. They also wore special devices to measure their brain activity during sleep.

The study found that eighty-eight of the group were identified as free of cognitive damage, eleven subjects as very little damaged, and one as a little damaged. And those whose cognitive scores declined slept less than 4.5 hours or more than 6.5 hours per night. But the scores stayed the same for those in the middle of the range. Dr. Brendan Lucey, leading author of the research, said, “Our study suggests that there is a middle range for total sleep time for best cognitive ability. Shorter and longer sleep times were connected with worse cognitive result. ”

Greg Elder, a sleep researcher at Northumbria University, expressed his ideas about the findings. He wrote in The Conversation, “This is low when we consider that older adults are advised to get between seven and eight hours of sleep every night.” He also noted that the research should have taken other information about the subjects studied, including their general health or economic conditions, into consideration.

But Dr. Lucey agreed that each person’s sleep needs are unique. Babies, young children, and teens need even more sleep for their growth and development. And people over 65 should also get more sleep per night. “It suggests that sleep quality may be key, not simply total sleep,’’ Lucey added.