Reading and the Cognitive Faculty of Man


This is true according to Dr. Seuss because reading does in fact increase a person's intelligence. Research by Anne E. Cunningham has revealed that not only does reading make you smarter, but it also keeps you sharp and analytical as you age. Books become a integral part of our lives, almost like a partner, because they tend to build conversations; and conversations are important for a growing mind. 

Reading can help improve your intelligence.. Since reading is a way to gain information from written text, and intelligence is a measure of how much information someone gathers in their lifetime, it follows that reading makes you smarter. The more you read, the more information you take in, and therefore the smarter you become. The more you read, the more information you acquire, and therefore the smarter you get. As well as reading books can transport readers to different worlds and show them various slices of reality through the eyes of different characters. The journey from a writer's mind, to the free flow of a book, and finally to a reader's mind where it is interpreted in their own way, is a beautiful journey.

Although there is no clear correlation between one's IQ score and the amount of reading that individual does, but it is still worth considering that there are different types of intelligence and reading does have some influence on some of them. Unfortunately, how smart we actually are cannot be measured by an IQ test. While our intelligence can be expressed with a number, our smartness is a much more complex personal trait.

THE BENEFITS OF READING TO THE DIFFERENT FACULTIES OF MAN

Cognitive Development and Reading

Cognitive development refers to how we view and think about our world in reference to our intelligence, reasoning, language development, and information processing. While cognitive skills involve the mental processes we use to take in, understand, organize, store, and retrieve information. These processes help us to learn and remember new things, and to solve problems.

By reading to children, you give them a deep understanding about their world and fill their brains with background knowledge. They then use this acquired background knowledge to make sense of what they see, hear, and read, which aids their cognitive development. Cognitive skills are essential for academic success in any subject, as they form the foundation for learning. The direct impact of cognitive processes on academic performance is supported by increasing evidence.

Reading has been found to change certain areas of the brain and activate others. Neuroscientists believe that reading can "rewire" the areas of the brain responsible for spoken language and vision. This has a positive effect on our cognitive intelligence. Reading can help improve the function of the brain area that processes a lot of visual information every day. This phenomenon can also be seen in adults who learn to read later in life.

A recent report from Emory University demonstrated the way that reading books could overhaul specific region of the mind, creating natural changes that went on for as long as five days. The participants in the study conducted by Robert Harris' 2003 found out that the areas of the brain  were the most active as they comprehended the story were the ones which showed heightened connectivity the next few days.

Psychologists Emanuele Casta and David Comer Kidd of the New School for Social Research conducted a study with 1,000 participants where each of them was randomly assigned an excerpt to read from either literally fiction and popular bestsellers. The researchers referred to the following excerpt from critic Roland Barthes' 'The Pleasure of the Text' to explain the different effects each type of reading material had on the minds of the reader: Participants were then tested with two "theory of mind" tests. Those who had read the literary fiction consistently scored higher than those who had read the popular

In other research that focus on reading and the cognitive development of children, there are a lot a research that proves the advantage of reading. According to Book Trust,   UK's largest children's reading charity, based in London, England, discovered the profound benefits of reading for a child’s development. According to their study, reading has a number of benefits for children including helping them develop later literacy skills, facilitating social interaction between adults and children, and encouraging children to engage with the world around them. The study also found that reading can be a ‘stable source of information’ throughout a child’s life. The stability  can be beneficial for children growing up in challenging circumstances by allowing them to access text in a constant fashion.

Reading truly is a pivotal life skill that affects many aspects of both child's development and if it become a habit it affects the persons intellect for a lifetime. The value of reading is unquestionable for us, and with the overflowing of data through research on human cognition, its too obvious not to consider reading as one of the essentials on the cognitive development of both young and old as per evidence suggest.. In addition from being a tool to develop language and cognitive skills, reading can progress other faculties of man such as  it nurture creativity and social skills. 

Next Article:

READING VITAL TO HUMAN DEVELOPMENTL: NURTURING CREATIVITY AND IMPROVING SOCIAL SKILLS

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