Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

Electrical-Smile-636 t1_ith8dv4 wrote

Nice to see my research (first author) get this attention! It is quite misrepresented though, as we did not measure dopamine levels directly :)

194

Stepjamm t1_ithg396 wrote

Misrepresented journalism? Sounds like you’ve finally made it to the big leagues haha

88

thehazer t1_iti02mb wrote

HA, I do love seeing an author call it out though. No matter how minor, I think this stuff hurts public perception of science.

12

DoofDilla t1_ithielr wrote

While reading this, i asked myself, should students and teachers try to change the environment their are learning in as often as possible then? Would it make a difference if you study in the same room for a few weeks or study a few weeks in a new room everyday?

15

Electrical-Smile-636 t1_ithxzd3 wrote

Yes, this is also what I have suggested in earlier papers and grant applications! One should also consider context-dependent retrieval effects, which suggest that it is easier to retrieve information when you are in the same place when learning that information. So for elementary school children this effect may be stronger than the potential effect of novelty, but for university students (who almost never do an exam at the same location as where they were learning) novelty may be potentially beneficial. Some other labs also have shown that elementary school children can benefit from exposure to other types of novelty (e.g., a novel science lesson)

17

someguyfromtheuk t1_itkj5cu wrote

Does this also apply to virtual novel environments like video games/books/movies?

Like if a film is set on an alien planet instead of your home country are you more likely to remember the details of it because the environment is novel?

5

Electrical-Smile-636 t1_itkozuo wrote

We also use virtual environments, so with regard to that example, I'd say yes. In a study from 2021, however, we found that the benefits only occurred when individuals were actively exploring (similar as in a 3D game) and not just watching exploration behavior from someone else (which would be more similar to watching a movie). My hunch is that making active navigational choices may be a prerequisite (as this probably relies on the hippocampus). We need to investigate this more thoroughly (i.e., using neuroscientific methods) though! I'd be interested to see if imagined environments, as may occur when reading a book, could have an effect. Good idea for a follow-up maybe :)

3