Chapter 3 The Brain and Cognitive Development PDF

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chapter 3 with dr. Rebecca Martin online course...

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Chapter 3: The Brain and Cognitive Development Friday, January 31, 2020

9:52 PM

• The brain depends on experiences to determine how connec • Neurconstructivist view: developmental perspective in which environmental conditions influence the brain's development; context dependent; and cognitive development is closely link ○ Emphasizes the importance of interactions between exp the brain's development, much as the epigenetic view p • Neurons: nerve cells, which are the nervous system's basic ○ Has 3 parts: § Cell body § Dendrites □ Receiving part of the neuron § Axon □ Carries information away from the cell body to o □ Myelination: the process by which the axon por covered and insulated with a layer of fat cells, w efficiency of information processing in the nervo ® Occurs during adolescence and emerging a • White matter is used to describe the whitish color of mylinate primarily to dendrites and the cell body of the neuron. • Significant developmental change in adolescence is the incr decrease in gray matter in the prefrontal cortex. • Synpatogenesis is the dramatic increase in connections betw ○ Synapses: gaps between neurons, where connections b take place ○ Synpatogenesis begins in infancy and continues through • The brain is hierarchically organized and mainly develops fro areas reaching full maturity before the higher level associatio

ons are made. iological processes and he brain has plasticity and is d with brain development riences and gene expression in poses nits

her cells on of the neuron becomes hich increases the speed and s system dulthood axons, and gray matter refers ase in white matter and the een neurons. tween the axon and dendrites adolescence m the bottom up, with sensory areas of the prefrontal cortex

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areas reaching full maturity before the higher-level associatio • Corpus callosum: large bundle of axon fibers that connects t hemispheres ○ Thickens in adolescence, which approves the ability to p • Prefrontal cortex: highest level of the frontal lobes that is inv making, and self-control ○ Continues to develop through emerging adult years • Limbic system: a lower, subcortical system in the brain that i experience of rewards ○ Matures much earlier than the prefrontal cortex and is a early adolescence ○ Amygdala: structure of the limbic system that is especia • In late adolescence and emerging adulthood, the increase in connectivity and integration of brain regions • In middle and late childhood, there is increased focal activat such as the prefrontal cortex, but limited connections across As adolescents develop, great efficiency and focal activiation occ simultaneously there is an increase in brain networks across diffe Piaget found that children and adolescents use and adapt their s accommodation • Assimilation: the incorporation of new information into existin ○ In assimilation, the schema does not change • Accommodation: the adjustment of a schema in response to ○ The schema changes Another process piaget identified is equilibration: the shift in thou • Adolescents experience cognitive conflict or a sense of dise understand the world, but they eventually resolve it and reac thought. • Piaget maintained tha tindividuals move back and forth betw and disequilibrium. Piaget's theory, a person's cognition is qualitatively different in on Piaget used the term conservation to refer to an individual's abilit

areas of the prefrontal cortex. e brain's left and right ocess information ved in reasoning, decision

the seat of emotions and most completely developed by y involved in emotion myelination allows greater n within a specific brain region, istant brain regions rs in local area of the brain, and ent brain regions hemas through assimilation and knowledge ew information ht from one state to another ilibrium in their attempt to a balance, or equilibirium, of en states of cognitive equilibrium stage compared with another to recognize that the length,

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number, mass, quantity, area, weight, and volume of objects and through transformations that alter their appearance. Hypothetical-deductive reasoning: the ability to develop hypothes to solve problems, such as algebraic equations • Having developed a hypothesis, the formal operational think concludes, the best path to follow in solving the problem Piaget maintained that formal operational thought is the best des • Not a homogeneous stage of development • Some developmentalists that it consists of two subperiods: ○ Early formal operational thought: § Adolescents' newfound ability to think in hypothetica thoughts with unlimited possibilities. § World is perceived subjectiveily and idealistically § Assimilation is the dominant process ○ Late formal operational thought § As adolescents test their reasoning against experie restored § Through accommodation, they begin to adjust to the Piaget's theory does not account for the individual differences tha development of adolescents • Neo-piagetians: theorists who argue that piaget got some th needs considerable revision. In their revision, they give more processing that involves attention, memory, and strategies; t precise explanations of cognitive changes. Postformal thought: thought that is reflective, relativistic, and con open to emotions and subjective Conclusions regarding wisdom: • High levels of wisdom are rare • The time frame of late adolescence and early adulthood is th emerge • Factors other than age are critical for wisdom to develop to a • Personality-related factors, such as openness to experience

ubstances does not change s, or best guesses, about how then systematically deduces, or ription of how adolescents think

ways produces unconstrained

ce, intellectual balance is upheaval they have experienced characterize the cognitive gs right but that his theory emphasis to information ey also seek to provide more xtual; provisional; realistic; and

main age window for wisdom to high level nd creativity, are better

predictors of wisdom than cognitive factors such as intelligen • Zone of proximal developmetn: refers to the range of tasks t individual to master alone, but can be mastered with the guid more-skilled peers ○ Vygotsky's emphasis on the ZPD underscored his belief influences on cognitive development • Vygotsky's theory is a social constructivist approach: empha learning and the construction of knowledge through social in • • Information processing is influenced by cognitive resources-capa processing • Fast processing is linked with good performance on cognitiv • Attention: concentration and focusing of mental effort • Selective attention: focusing on a specific aspect of experien others that are irrelevant • Divided attention: involves concentrationg on more than one • Sustained attention: the ability to maintain attention to a sele period of time • Executive attention: involves planning actions, allocating atte compensating for errors, monitoring progress on tasks, and circumstances • Memory: retengion of information over time • Central to mental life and to information processing • Short-term memory is a limited-capacity memory system in w as long as half a minute, unless the info is rehearsed • Working memory is where individuals manipulate and assem decisions, solve problems, and comprehend written and spo • Many psychologists prefer the term working memory over sh memory works • Working memory is described as more active and powerful i short-term memory • Long-term memory is a relatively permanent memory system

e at are too difficult for an nce and assistance of adults or n the importance of social zes the social contexts of raction ty and speed of information tasks e that is relevant while ignoring ctivity at the same time ted stimulus for a prolonged tion to goals, detecting and ealing with novel or difficult

hich information is retained for le information when they make en language rt-term memory to describe how modifying information than is hat holds huge amounts of

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information for a long period of time ○ Increases substantially in the middle and late childhood continues through adolescence • Executive function: an umbrella like concept that higher orde that include exercising cognitive control, making decisions, r thinking creatively, and metacognition ○ Hot executive function: psychological processes involvin logical thinking and critical analysis ○ Cool executive function: psychological processes driven regulation an especially important process Cognitive control: involves efective control and flexible thinking in controlling attention, reducing interfering thoughts, and being cog • Also referred to as inhibitory control or effortful control to em strong inclination to do one thing but instead to do what is m Cognitive flexilbility involves being aware that options and alterna to the situation Critical thinking is thinking reflectivey and productively and evalu • Mindfulness-being alert, mentally present, and cognitively fle everday activities and trasks-is an important aspect of thinki Cognitive changes that facilitate imporvement of critical thinking • Increased speed, automaticity, and capacity of information p resources for other purposes • Greater breadth of content knowledge in a variety of domain • Increased ability to construct new combinations of knowledg • A greater range and more spontaneous use of strategies an applying knowledge, such as planning, considering the alter Creativity is the ability to think in novel ways and discover unique • Not the same as intelligence • Divergent thinking: a pattern of thinking in which individuals same question; more characteristic of creativity than converg Metacognition: cognition about cognition, "knowing about knowin • Increasingly recognized as an important cognitive skill in ado

ears and improvement likely complex cognitive processes asoning, thinking critically, conscious control driven by y emotion, with emotion a number of areas, including itively flexible hasize the ability to resist a st effective ves are available and adapting ing evidence ble while going through life's critically kills during adolescence: ocessing, which free cognitive

procedures for obtaining and atives, and cognitive monitoring solutions to problems oduce many answers to the nt thinking " escence and emerging

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adulthood Theory of mind: refers to awareness of one's own mental proces others psychometric/intelligence view: a view that emphasizes the impo intelligence; many advocates of this view also argue that intellige intelligence tests Intelligence: the ability to solve problems and to adapt and learn Individual differences are the stable, consistent ways in which pe Binet developed the concept of mental age (MA): an individual's relative to others • Stern created the concept of intelligence quotient (IQ): a per chronological age (CA), multiplied by 100 • IQ=MA/CA * 100 • If mental age is the same as chronological age, then the per • If mental age is above chronological age, then IQ us greater • If mental age is below chronological age, then IQ is less than Howard Gardner's 8 frames of mind: • Verbal: ability to think in words and use language to express • Mathematical: the ability to carry out mathematical operation • Spatial: the ability to think three-dimensionally • Bodily-kinesthetic: the ability to manipulate objects and be p • Musical: a sensitivity to pitch, melody, rhythm, and tone • Interpersonal: the ability to understand and effectively intera • Intrapersonal: the ability to understand oneself • Naturalist: the ability to observe patterns in nature and unde systems According to Gardner, everyone has all of these intelligences bu Sternberg's Triarchic Theory of intelligence: states that intelligen • Analytical intelligence: refers to the ability to analyze, judge, • Creative intelligence: consists of thea bility to create, design • Practical intelligence: involves the ability to use, applly, imple

es and the mental process of ance of individual differences in ce should be assessed with om experiences ple differ from each other vel of mental development on's mental age divided by

on's IQ is 100 han 100 100 meaning

ysically adept with others tand natural and human-made o varying degrees e comes in three forms: valuate, compare, and contrast nvent, originate, and imagine ment, and put ideas into practice

• Emotional intelligence: another theory that emphasizes intrapers aspects of intelligence; defined as the ability to perceive and exp adaptively, to understand emotion and emotional knowledge, to u and to manage emotions in oneself and others • Stereotype threat: the anxiety that one's behavior might confirm a group • Potential influence on intelligence test performance • Social cognition: refers to the way individuals conceptualize and the people they watch and interact with, their relationships with th participate in, and the way they reason about themselves and oth • Adolescent egocentrism: the heightened self-consciousness of a their belief that others are interested in them as they are in thems personal uniqueness and invulnerability • David Elkind argues that this can be dissected into imaginar ○ Imaginary audience: refers to the aspect of adolescent e attention-getting behavior ○ Personal fable is the part of adolescent egocentrism tha of personal uniqueness and invulnerability

nal, interpersonal, and practical ss emotion accurately and e feelings to facilitate thought, negative stereotype about one's

ason about their social worldsse people, the groups they rs olescents, which is reflected in elves, and in their sense of audience and personal fable ocentrism that involves nvolves an adolescent's sense...