Curiosity creates new brain cells

Several years ago, Bob Pike suggested, in his book, “Creative Training Techniques“, that:

Adults are just babies in big bodies – they learn in the same way!

Recently, John Medina (pictured above) extended this idea by suggesting that our natural curiosity and need to explore is as relevant to adult neural development as it is for children.

Babies are the model of how we learn—not by passive reaction to the environment but by active testing through observation, hypothesis, experiment, and conclusion.

Specific parts of the brain allow this scientific approach. The right prefrontal cortex looks for errors in our hypothesis (“The saber-toothed tiger is not harmless”), and an adjoining region tells us to change behavior (“Run!”)

This is his Brain Rule #12 and is explained in this video:

The benefits of exploration and learning through trial and error was recently highlighted in a recent study from MIT where they found that we learned more from success than failure.

The source for the YouTube video can be found at: Brain Rules: Brain Rule #12: Exploration

How can you harness the brains natural ability to create new neurons and establish new connections by harnessing your learners natural curiosity and allow them to explore for themselves?

Paul and Ally are working on an exciting 6-part (online) course to help your learners fully engage with your training - sign up for the 'early bird' list for advanced notification and more info

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