Reasoning to Learn & Learning to Reason

Relational thinking, or the ability to reason about relationships between mental representations, is a cornerstone of reasoning and decision-making. In this talk, Professor Silvia Bunge will make the case that relational thinking should be considered an executive function, and will provide evidence that it supports math achievement. She will then discuss neural underpinnings of the development of relational reasoning and individual differences therein. Finally, she will present effects of intensive reasoning training on performance, eye gaze metrics, and brain structure and function. All in all, the aim of this webinar is to encourage educators to look for opportunities to bolster relational thinking in the context of their curricula.

This talk is part of a webinar series from the Centre for Educational Neuroscience at UCL, Birkbeck University and the UCL IoE. You can register here to receive weekly updates about the seminar series.