Adolescence: Cognitive development

Question 1

what 2 brain regions is developed in adolescence? and what does the difference in timing development between the 2 mean?

Answer 1

prefrontal cortex- allow cogntive capacities, reject irrelevant info, formulate complex hypothetical arguments, plan for future, control impulses
Limbic system- process social and emotional info
difference in time may explain adolescence risk-taking behavior

Question 2

what are the 3 approaches/ theories to cognitive developent in adolescence?

Answer 2

constructive perpective- piaget
componential approach- information-processing view
psychometric approach-intelligence

Question 3

describe the constructive perspective by Piaget and what stage does children enter according to Piaget?

Answer 3

assumes that individual interpret or make sense of all experience- recognise familiar face, listening to a convo. Events remain uncertain until we respond to them. Piaget says that people not only understand their world but they can also organise it.
Age 11-12 child enters stage of formal operational stage of cognitive development- abstract, scientific thinking.

Question 4

what are the 4 characteristics of the formal operational stage?

Answer 4

Hypothethico-deductive reasoning- think about alternative ways to solve problems.- paiget’s pendulum problem- study of strings to make pendulum swing -only string lenght makes difference - scientific reasoning
Propositional thinking- evaluate the logic of verbal statements withou reffering to real-world circumstances- hypothethical reasoning
Combinatorial analysis- organise various possible combinations in a problem- test variables by trail and error
Relativistic thinking- absolute right answers exists for everything and are known by authority=realism but thought is relative because they realise different perspectives- dualistic thinking- soemthing is right/wrong, no other possibilities

Question 5

what are the 6 conceptual skills that emerge during the stage of formal operation?

Answer 5

1 Ability to manipulate more than 1 varaible
2 Think about changes that come in time
3 Ability to hypothesise about a logical sequence of possible events
4 Able to anticipate consequences of actions
5 Able to detect the logical consistency/inconsistency in a set of statements
6 Able to think relativistic ways about themselves and others

Question 6

what is the evaluation of Piaget’s theory?

Answer 6

theory that everyone enters stage and goes through same maturation process is inaccurate
Piaget was overly optimistic about adolescence thinking abilities
he responded that everyone has potential to reach stage

Question 7

what are the factors that influence is child enters the formal operational stage?

Answer 7

experiences- demands of different role relationships
education
theory is not broad enough to encompass the many dimensions of cognitive functioning

Question 8

describe the componential approach: an example is the information-processing view

Answer 8

breaking down of thinking process into various components

Question 9

what are the 4 progressive changes with ge that occur in the componential approach?

Answer 9

1 attention better- selective attention (nb for problem solving) and divided attention
2 processing info: speed, capacity, automaticity- increase and have greater control- structural capacity (cognitive ability) and functional capacity (effective use of existing abilities)- take in more info quicker
3 knowledge base, encoding, storing and retrieving info- ST and LT memeory improve via greater knowlegde - greater flexibility of thought
4 metcognition and cogntive self-regulation improves, new insights, better ways to gain knwoledge

Question 10

what are te 3 componenents by Sternberg that accounts for individual differences in problem-solving and knowledge based which operation on information?

Answer 10

metacomponents (minitor progress); performance components (carry out procedures by metacomponent); knowledge-acquisitions components(acquire new info)

Question 11

does people of all ages use this three components and how?

Answer 11

yes all ages use the three but spend different amount of time on each, adolescenec spend more time encoding items because they consider more options that children. with age you spend more time planning on how to solve a problem.

Question 12

what is the evaluation on the information-processing approach? reductionist approach

Answer 12

its a reductionist approach (break into parts) so the extend of the phenomenon becomes lost
its a computar model- does not take emotions into account
it does lathough acknowledge the brain is more complex

Question 13

define the psychometric approach: intellegence

Answer 13

intellegence is ability to profit from experience, behave adaptively and function sucessfully in certain environment.
psychometric approach focus on individual differences in genral abilities that contribute to intellegence
test via IQ score

Question 14

Gardner accepts the definition of intellegence but says it is much more broader: what are the 8 multiple intellengences?

Answer 14

logical-mathematical; intrapersonal (understand oneself); linguistic; spatial; bodily-kinaesthtic; musical; interpersonal (understand others); intrapersonal and naturalist intellegence.

Question 15

Why does Gardner critize current IQ test?

Answer 15

he says that they place logical-mathematical and linguistic abilities above other - measure of intellegence show cultural bias in favor of logical and verbal abilities

Question 16

on who does adolescence depend for the acquisition of language?

Answer 16

peers- language of the streets, media, courtship
school-teachers must learn them vocab
religious instructors- spiritual language

Question 17

define inductive reasoning and deductive reasoning

Answer 17

inductive- person reason from the prticular to the general eg- explain character of movie they must look at behaviors and emotions to make conclusion
deductive- reason from general to particular-charctersitics of character will predict how they will act

Question 18

what skills help adolescence to better see gaps in knwoedge and to asjust than children?

Answer 18

metacognitive skills- cognitive development is organisational core that affects all areas of thinking

Question 19

adolescence can use abstract thinking to gather facts and build case, this can improve their argumentativeness. How can this affect parent-child relationships?

Answer 19

1 parents does not see that adolescence wants to make own decision to gain independence- conflict
2 adolescence question attitides of parents if not giving clear and fair explanation
3 parents have more experinec and long-term outlook - this generation gap an lead to conflict

Question 20

define social cognition

Answer 20

way in which we think about other people, social relationships and social institutions

Question 21

describe the aspect of social cognition, perspective-taking?

Answer 21

ability to consider a situation from another point of view- consider thoughts and feelings of other
age 8-10

Question 22

what is mutual perspective- taking?

Answer 22

early adolescene understand that their perspective taking interactions with others are mutual, migh consider how their view and another viw might appear to third party

Question 23

define social and conventional system perspective-taking

Answer 23

adolescence come to ralise that their social perspectives and those of others are unfluenced not just by their interaction, but their roles in wider society

Question 24

what is another aspect of social cognition that involves making judgements about what another person are like and why they behave a certain way? how does these theories change from childhood to adolescence?

Answer 24

implicit personality theories-
chidren age 6-7- describe others in cocncrete ways
middle childhood age 8-10- describe in internal traits
adolescence age 12-18 - describe abstract personality traits - coplex and shows their awareness, organised

Question 25

why is adolescence so self-focussing and self-conscious?

Answer 25

they have an imaginary audience- belief that everyone’s focus is on them - limits dinstinction between thoughts baout themselves and what others think about them

Question 26

what is the personal fable during adolescence stage?

Answer 26

intense investements in one’s own thoughts and feelings and a belief that these thoughts are unique
built on imaginary audience
inflated opinion of their own importance
strongest in the formal operational thinking stage

Question 27

what is optimistic bias?

Answer 27

think that accidents, diseases and bad thinks will happen to others than to themselves

Question 28

what is cognitive self-regulation?

Answer 28

means planning what to do first and what to do next, monistering progress towards a goal, improve skills

Question 29

what is the most prominent perspective on adolescent decision-making in the behavioral decision-making?

Answer 29

behavioral decision theory
decision-making process include
1 identifying range of possible choices
2 identify consequences of choice
3 evaluate consequence
4 asses likelihood of each consequence
5 integrating this consequences

Question 30

why are adolescence more suscpetible to risky-behavior than adults?

Answer 30

adults have more cognitive capacity to make competent decisions
brain systems improve with age - better limbic system
acceptance by peers
if there is immediate reward, adolescence not control risky behavior

Question 31

what factors influence the adaption of adolescence to school?

Answer 31

quality of teaching
cognitive abilities
motivation
attitudes
beliefs strogn need for achievment
expect to succeed 
supportive background
socio -economic status