Elena Bodrova and Deborah Leong, consultants on four previously released Davidson Films projects (VYGOTSKY'S DEVELOPMENTAL THEORY: AN INTRODUCTION, SCAFFOLDING SELF-REGULATED LEARNING IN THE PRIMARY GRADES, PLAY: A VYGOTSKIAN APPROACH, and BUILDING LITERACY COMPETENCIES IN EARLY CHILDHOOD) have recently been featured on two segments of NPR's Health Notes, a regular feature of the very popular "Morning Edition" news program. 

In the program segments Bodrova and Leong described the importance of creative play for the development of self-regulation skills.  Their "Tools of the Mind" early childhood curriculum is featured in the four films made in cooperation with Davidson Films. These films illustrate the intellectual background of the techniques that their curriculum utilizes, as well as showing in detail classroom teachers putting these tools to use.

A recent article in Science Magazine refers to the work of Drs. Bodrova and Leong when it was found that children enrolled in classes using their Tools of the Mind curriculum notably increased their executive control functions as compared to children enrolled in classrooms using traditional methods of education.  A description of the research is at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071129142444.htm

"The account of perception that's starting to emerge is what we might call the 'brain's best guess' theory of perception: perception is the brain's best guess about what is happening in the outside world.  The mind integrates scattered, weak, rudimentary signals from a variety of sensory channels, information from past experiences and hard-wired processes, and produces a sensory experience full of brain-provided color, sound, texture, and meaning," wrote Atul Gawande, M.D. (he's a
practicing surgeon) in an article entitled  "The Itch" in the June 30th copy of the New Yorker.

The ways Our upcoming new film: MAKING SENSE OF SENSORY INFORMATION with Dale Purves, M.D. (his website is at www.purveslab.com) has the same thesis and demonstrates that our visual circuitry is incapable of transmitting what is really out there, but that we effectively deal with the world through a combination of inherited reflex-like behaviors and
experience.  The New Yorker article fundamentally about the neurology of itching.  Itching is caused by a separate system of nerves than the ones that cause pain.  But the article goes on to make the point that we can't explain any of our sensations merely by following neural pathways. "Richard Gregory, a prominent British neuropsychologist, estimates that
visual perception is more than ninety percent memory and less than then percent sensory nerve signals."  Our perception has much more to do with how our brains interpret inputs based on a combination of inherited proclivities and experienced than by our physiology.  "The fallacy of reducing perception to reception is especially clear when it comes to phantom limbs," Gawande goes on to say and shows that cutting nerves doesn't stop perception of pain in missing limbs.
 

Adele Diamond, who will be the consultant on an upcoming Davidson Films production (THE THINKING BRAIN: AN INTRODUCTION TO NEUROSCIENCE) also spoke on the NPR program and answered listeners' questions in a forum afterwards.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19212514

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=76838288

Marian Diamond, anatomy professor extraordinaire, has become a star of YouTube with her thirty-part course on human anatomy which has attracted more than 100,000 viewers.  Dr. Diamond is the subject of the Davidson Films production,
OLDER BRAINS, NEW CONNECTIONS: A CONVERSATION WITH MARIAN DIAMOND, which discusses brain function in old age and also offers her suggestions on ways of maintaining intellectual functioning in the later years of life.  Dr. Diamond was 73 when
Davidson filmed her and, nearly a decade later is still very much involved in teaching.   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9WtBRNydso 

ALSO: A story about "on-line video stars" was in the January 25, 2008 Chronicle of Higher Education.
 

The effect of early experience on the brain development was the subject of several sessions at the recent meetings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The work coming from Helen Neville's Brain-Development Laboratory at the University of Oregon was highlighted in the February 29 issue. Neville was the consultant on our film production of HUMAN BRAIN DEVELOPMENT: NATURE AND NURTURE.

Howard Steele is a featured speaker at the Seventh Annual Attachment Conference in March, 2008 at UCLA.  Dr. Steele is the consultant for the recently released JOHN BOWLBY: ATTACHMENT THEORY OVER GENERATIONS. Also on the UCLA program are Drs. Miriam Steele and Peter Fonagy, both of whom appear in the John Bowlby film - as well as Mary Main, whose work is highlighted both in the Bowlby film and in our film MARY AINSWORTH: ATTACHMENT AND THE GROWTH OF LOVE.
 

Albert Bandura is the recipient of the 2008 Grawemeyer Award for psychology.  This award carries with it a $200,000 prize and is administered through the University of Louisville.  BBANDURA'S SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORY: AN INTRODUCTION is one of the best selling in the Davidson Films catalogue. It was written and narrated by Dr. Bandura himself. 

 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071129142444.htm

Howard Steele and his wife, Miriam Steele, have just published a new book, Clinical Applications of the Adult Attachment Interview.  It has been very well received (see sample review below). released through The Guilford Press, the 500+ page book can be found on amazon.com. ISBN-10: 1593856962 and ISBN-13: 978-1593856960

"Steele and Steele have brought together a really valuable set of data and ideas concerning the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI), one of the more intriguing and powerful clinical and research tools available in psychology. The book stands out as a serious and ambitious attempt to translate the AAI--and attachment theory more broadly - to multiple clinical contexts. Chapters are written by leading clinicians and scientists, and each is focused and thoughtful, showing, for example, how the AAI informs case conceptualization in individual treatment. This volume deserves to be widely read. It is highly accessible for those just beginning to apply attachment theory to research and practice, but there is also enough that is new to please experienced fans of the AAI." --Thomas G. O'Connor, PhD, Department of Psychiatry, University of Rochester Medical Center