PASSAGE 1. ⇱
Among the many advanced cognitive abilities that elephants exhibit, their exceptional memory is what they are most known for. Elephant memory is an area of study that many researchers have sought to understand and explain, and recent findings reveal that much has yet to be discovered.
Elephants travel in herds typically guided by the oldest female - the matriarch - and her memory is imperative to their survival. She can remember the location of watering holes and feeding points and is the one in charge of leading the herd to safety when disaster strikes.
Researchers have found that in periods of drought, for instance, herds with younger matriarchs are less likely to survive. The older matriarch is able to recollect information from decades back. While humans might experience memory loss as they grow older, the exact opposite occurs with elephants. Another study exhibited how herds with older female leaders huddled together in the face of a predator, whereas those with younger matriarchs didn't. Older matriarchs seemed to remember encountering dangerous strangers in the past and knew when to take a defensive position to ward them off.
Elephants form strong social ties with each other and build a complex network of relationships throughout life which depends on genetic, social and circumstantial factors. Their strong memory helps maintain these through time and space. It is believed that they can keep track of the location of about 30 other elephants at any given time when travelling; an impressive figure considering that they don't always roam in a fixed order and the groups are frequently changing.
(Adapted from OnScreen)
PASSAGE 2. ⇱
In modern times, hurry, bustle, and agitation are a regular way of life for many people — unfortunately so much so that we have embraced a word that describes our efforts to respond to the many pressing demands on our time: multitasking. Used for decades to describe the parallel processing abilities of computers, multitasking is now shorthand for the human attempt to do simultaneously as many things as possible, as quickly as possible, preferably marshalling the power of as many technologies as possible.
To better understand the multitasking phenomenon, neurologists and psychologists have studied the workings of the brain. In 1999, Jordan Grafman used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans to determine that when people engage in ‘task-switching’ — that is, multitasking behaviour — the flow of blood increases to a region of the frontal cortex called Brodmann area 10. (The flow of blood to particular regions of the brain is taken as an indication of activity in those regions.) ‘This is presumably the last part of the brain to evolve, the most mysterious and exciting part,’ Grafman said.
This fact is also what makes multitasking a poor long-term strategy for learning. Other studies, such as those performed by psychologist René Marois, have used fMRI to demonstrate the brain’s response to handling multiple tasks. Marois found evidence of a ‘response selection bottleneck’ that occurs when the brain is forced to respond to several stimuli at once. As a result, task-switching leads to time lost as the brain determines which task to perform.
Psychologist David Meyer believes that rather than a bottleneck in the brain, a process of ‘adaptive executive control’ takes place, which ‘schedules task processes appropriately to obey instructions about their relative priorities and serial order’, as he described to the New Scientist. Unlike many other researchers who study multitasking, Meyer is optimistic that, with training, the brain can learn to task-switch more effectively, and there is some evidence that certain simple tasks are amenable to such practice.
(Adapted from Formula)
PASSAGE 3. ⇱
In many European cultures, names are typically chosen by parents. Parents’ choice for their child’s name may be based on names of relatives or ancestors within their particular family. For example, in Italy, children are traditionally named after their grandparents. The parents generally use the father’s parents’ names first. If they have more children, then they will use the mother’s parents’ names. Similarly, some people in Eastern Europe name their children after relatives who have died. This tradition is seen as a means to protect the child from the Angel of Death.
Traditionally in some Asian countries, a child’s grandfather or a fortune-teller chooses the child’s name. In contrast to the tradition of naming children after relatives, the child’s name is chosen to influence the child’s character. For example, names may be based on a connection to certain elements such as fire, water, earth, wood, or metal. Or the name might include a written character meaning beauty, strength, or kindness.
In certain African cultures, when a child is born plays a large part in determining the child’s name. In Ghana’s Akan culture, the day a child is born determines the child’s name. But each day has different names for boys and girls. For instance, a boy born on Friday is named Kofi, whereas a girl born on the same day is named Afua. Both Kofi and Afua are names meaning “wanderer” or “explorer.” Children with these names are seen as travelers.
No matter where the name comes from, a child’s name is the first gift in life. Whether it is chosen according to preference or dictated by tradition, the name reflects something about a child’s culture. For that reason, all names should be treasured and respected.
(Adapted from Reading Challenge)