The News for July is up, plus attendant podcast.

Those who have been reading me for a while will know I'm a Montessori fan -- both my sons went to a Montessori preschool and primary school. So I was particularly interested in a study which affirms the Montessori philosophy of "follow the child" -- which means letting the child set the pace of their learning. The study looked at change detection (a hot topic at the moment) in children 6-10 years old. They were surprised to find that, although 8 year olds are capable of adult-level attention for many aspects of attention, it is not the case for this aspect. Even 10 year olds can't reliably perceive details of a scene at adult level. I particularly liked the quote from the researcher:

"We expect children to be adult-like, because of their proficiency on computers or because they display adult-like speech, so we give them instructions and get impatient when they can't understand what we tell them the first time. Children learn through repetition, at a pace suitable to the child, not to the curriculum. Once upon a time, kids controlled their own pace; now that pace is controlled by adults."

Too true - and words all parents and teachers should heed.

There's a good article in the Economist on that hot topic, the difference between male and female brains.

On a completely different note, a new report has come out affirming the health dangers of social isolation. The analysis of US census and death certificate data found that those who had been widowed were nearly 40% more likely than married people to die during the 8 year period studied, while those who had been divorced or separated were 27% more likely to die. But those who had never been married were the most likely of all (58% more likely). These figures are after obvious factors such as age and health had been taken into account. While it's long been thought that the health benefits of marriage (which are greater for men) reflect a reduction in risky behaviors, such as smoking, drinking, not exercising, eating poorly, the difference in these matters was apparently not that great. The researchers suggest social connectedness is the answer.

And there's a fascinating study going on at the Arizona State University's Polytechnic campus into the effect of environment on social interaction. The project involves 24 of the 152 housing units on the campus. Groups of 6 houses have been given different landscaping styles, and the effects of these on social behavior is being monitored. The results so far indicate that there is indeed on impact.