Popular Science Review - Secrets of the Mind

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CD-ROM Review - Secrets of the Mind - Softkey/Science Museum

What is the mind? How does it work? This CD-ROM sets out to explain it. There are five main sections - human intelligence, learning & memory, brain building, consciousness and perception and the thinking machine, covered in over 5 hours of video, much of it in the form of an animated graphic with a cut out talking head superimposed, 15 psychological experiments to try out and 7 "round table discussions" where the various onboard experts put in their own viewpoint on a question. There's quite a neat feature clumsily called "pedagogical paths" (this perhaps reflects the partially French origins of the concept), which links together different talks to form a structured ramble. (Actually not just clumsy, it's insulting! The authors ought to be referred to Bill Bryson's Troublesome Words where he points out:"pedagogue... someone who makes an ostentatious show of his learning or is dogmatically fussy about rules. Some dictionaries still give pedagogue as a synonym for teacher or educator, but its pejorative sense has effectively driven out the neutral one.")

It really is all excellent stuff (though rather disappointing that creativity isn't mentioned to any great extent, and it's irritating that the material is on two CDs, so you have to keep swapping) - but like other CD-ROMs in the series there are three quite significant problems.

The first is the target audience. While this is less gimmicky the the equivalent Secrets of the Universe, it still has an interface that seems more designed to encourage kids to explore than to give adults effective access to information - yet the subject matter and the way it is presented is clearly addressed to adults.

Secondly I'm really not convinced this is the right way to present this material. A TV series would work well for a flashy overview; a good book would give you the depth to luxuriate in the subject matter - but the CD-ROM doesn't have the enjoyment factor of either.

Worst of all, it is very clear as soon as you have listened to practically any of the presenters for more than 10 seconds that many scientists simply aren't great communicators. The majority of the straight information transfer on the CD is from scientists' talking heads, and I have been to university lectures that had more excitement value than some of these talks.

The last impression I want to give is that it's all bad. And there are some excellent demonstrations and explorations that show that a CD-ROM like this has a place in education. But as a product to enjoy exploring it simply lacks that essential spark.

According to the blurb, this CD-ROM works on both PCs and Macs - we have only tested it on a PC.

Reviewed by Brian Clegg

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