The Other Lobe

A blog about experiential education, social media, and the brain

Co-authored Blog Posts

An unusual gap year?

- An unusual gap year By Kriti Kalary UA’25 and Jim Stellar Kriti came to the University at Albany with acceptance already assured into SUNY Upstate Medical School. She also had sufficient advanced placement credits from high school that she will… ...Read More

 

Guest Papers by Students, Staff, and Faculty (edited by JS)

Societal Trauma and Resilience: A Path towards Recovery, Empowering Women, and Epigenetics

- Societal Trauma and Resilience: A Path towards Recovery, Empowering Women, and Epigenetics   Ana Cecilia Duarte, Arezoo Hajighorbani, and Jim Stellar   In our last short blog on brain reward, societal trauma and resilience, we suggested that some help with… ...Read More

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Who We Are

Jim
Shwen
adrienne

Who We are and What We Do

The blog began as a partnership between an older (Jim Stellar) and a younger (Shwen Gwee) guy. Then when Jim began doing research for the book, he was helped by one of the first blog co-authors (Adrienne Dooley) who became a project manager for a team of researchers, ranging from students to professionals who worked to develop the book and continue to talk in an on-line forum. Now, the three of us have added a third section of short papers that examine topics in greater depth than possible in a blog.

The whole idea of the website is to discuss experiential education programs and  learning with a focus on what can be taken from neuroscience, cognitive, and social science research.  We believe that this research is showing that the brain is built to operate and make decisions in two ways – in conscious rational decision-making mode and in unconscious instinctive decision-making mode. We think that this dual view, which applies to economics, also applies to higher education.  It suggests important and natural ways that learning from direct experience can powerfully complement the classical classroom-based curriculum to improve student outcomes in and after college.

For more, click on the About link at the top