http://www.slate.com/id/2224932/ - 実に面白い。I think this is closer to some of the stuff we've talked about before here with regards to what motivates us and our enjoyment in language learning. (Notice I'm discarding the framework for the article, to me it's just an accessible look at Panksepp's theories.)

"... It is an emotional state Panksepp tried many names for: curiosity, interest, foraging, anticipation, craving, expectancy. He finally settled on seeking. Panksepp has spent decades mapping the emotional systems of the brain he believes are shared by all mammals, and he says, "Seeking is the granddaddy of the systems." It is the mammalian motivational engine that each day gets us out of the bed, or den, or hole to venture forth into the world. It's why, as animal scientist Temple Grandin writes in Animals Make Us Human, experiments show that animals in captivity would prefer to have to search for their food than to have it delivered to them.

For humans, this desire to search is not just about fulfilling our physical needs. Panksepp says that humans can get just as excited about abstract rewards as tangible ones. He says that when we get thrilled about the world of ideas, about making intellectual connections, about divining meaning, it is the seeking circuits that are firing... "

So in other words, Google is a tool used to exploit the minds of our generation?

nest0r Wrote:animals in captivity would prefer to have to search for their food than to have it delivered to them.

It's just because they're too stingy to tip the Domino's guy.

You guys are krayzee. Esp. kazelee. Krayzee kazelee. Krazyee lazy kazelee. Karefree krazyee lazy kazelee.

Well, that explains why I often spend more time searching for and collecting resources than actually using them. Probably why I spend so much time on forums too.

nest0r Wrote:You guys are krayzee. Esp. kazelee. Krayzee kazelee. Krazyee lazy kazelee. Karefree krazyee lazy kazelee.

Hey, I resent that!

I am in no way karefree.

Since I don't feel my note that I was discarding the framework for the article was enough to counterbalance the trendy framing, here's a critique from Mind Hacks criticizing the framing and also clarifying the recent studies by stressing the role of context and content: http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2009/08/de...king_.html

In terms of applications to language-learning, I'm thinking of how we choose to assign importance to information, and how being aware of these mechanisms of seeking and reward can enable us to accentuate them amidst our work\flow design in creating spontaneity and structure together, designing unpredicted rewards and learning to appreciate them to enhance progress. Or something.

And another: http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2009/08/information.php - Qualifying it by explaining the desire to build upon old information, to try and predict rewards.