Chapter 3- Cognitive Foundations

Question 1

Changes over time in how people think, how they solve problems, and how their capacities for memory and attention change

Answer 1

Cognitive development

Question 2

Influential swiss developmental psychologist, best known for his theories of cognitive and moral development

Answer 2

Jean Piaget

Question 3

A period in which abilities are organized in a coherent, interrelated way

Answer 3

Stage

Question 4

The organization of cognitive abilities into a single pattern, such that thinking in all aspects of life is a reflection of that structure

Answer 4

Mental structure

A person who thinks within a particular stage in one aspect of life should think within that stage in all other aspects of life as well because all thinking is part of the same mental structure

Question 5

Approach to understanding cognition that emphasizes the changes that take place at different stages

Answer 5

Cognitive-developmental approach

Question 6

Process by which abilities develop through genetically based development with limited influence from the environment

Answer 6

Maturation

Question 7

How did Piaget’s emphasis on the importance of maturation contrast with the views of other theorists?

Answer 7

Other theorists believed that there were no inherent limits to development or that environmental stimulation could override them. Piaget portrayed maturation as an active process in which children seek out information and stimulation in the environment that matches the maturity of their thinking, which contrasted with the views of other theorists such as behaviorists, who saw the environment as acting on the child through rewards and punishments rather than seeing the child as an active agent

Question 8

According to Piaget’s theory, a mental structure for organizing and interpreting information

Answer 8

Schemes

Question 9

The cognitive process that occurs when new information is altered to fit an existing’s scheme

Answer 9

Assimilation

Example: reading information in a text book that is familiar to you

Question 10

The cognitive process that occurs when a scheme is changed to adapt to new information

Answer 10

Accommodation

Example: learning about adolescent development in other cultures in a textbook that does not fit with your current ideas about that culture

Question 11

What are Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development?

Answer 11

Sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operations, formal operations

Question 12

According to Piaget, the cognitive stage in the first two years of life that involves learning how to coordinate the activities of the senses with motor activities

Answer 12

Sensorimotor stage

Question 13

According to Piaget, cognitive stage from ages 2 to 7 during which the child becomes capable of representing the world symbolically – for example, through the use of language – but is still very limited in ability to use mental operations

Answer 13

Preoperational stage

Question 14

According to Piaget, cognitive stage from age 7 to 11 in which children learn to use mental operations but are limited to applying them to concrete, observable situations rather than hypothetical situations

Answer 14

Concrete operations

Question 15

cognitive activity involving manipulating and reasoning about objects

Answer 15

Mental operations

Question 16

According to Piaget, cognitive stage from 11 on up in which people learn to think systematically about possibilities and hypotheses

Answer 16

Formal operations

Question 17

Piaget’s classic test of formal operations, in which persons are asked to figure out what determines the speed at which a pendulum swings from side to side

Answer 17

Pendulum problem

Question 18

Piaget’s term for the process by which the formal operational thinker systematically tests possible solutions to a problem and arrives at an answer that can be defended and explained

Answer 18

Hypothetical-deductive reasoning

Question 19

Thinking in terms of symbols, ideas, and concepts

Answer 19

Abstract thinking

Question 20

Thinking that takes into account multiple connections and interpretations, such as in the use of metaphor, satire, and sarcasm

Answer 20

Complex thinking

Question 21

The capacity for “thinking about thinking” that allows adolescents and adults to reason about their thought processes and monitor them

Answer 21

Metacognition

Question 22

Approach to research that focusses on how individuals differ within a group, for example, in performance on IQ tests

Answer 22

Individual differences

Question 23

What are the two limitations of Piaget’s theory of formal operations?

Answer 23

Individual differences in the attainment of formal operations

The cultural basis of adolescent cognitive development

Question 24

Describe the limitation of Piaget’s theory: individual differences in formal operations

Answer 24

Piaget’s theory puts a strong emphasis on maturation, and asserted that most people proceed through the same stages at about the same ages because they experience the same maturational processes.

Research indicates that these claims were inaccurate, especially for formal operations:

• there are a great range of individual differences in the extent to which people use formal operations, some use it in a wide range of situations; other use it selectively; and others not at all or rarely. A large proportion of people use formal operations either inconsistently or not at all
• those with the capacity for formal operations tend to use it selectively for problems and situations in which they have the most experience and knowledge – for example, chess players and those with experience working on cars
• specific kinds of experiences (education in science and math) are important for the development of formal operations. Adolescents with education in math and science are more likely than other adolescents to exhibit formal operational thought
• Piaget underestimated how much effort, energy, and knowledge it takes to use formal operations. Most tasks require concrete operations, and people often will not use formal operations even if they have the capacity to do so because they are more difficult and taxing

Question 25

Describe the limitation of Piaget’s theory: culture and formal operations

Answer 25

In the 1970s, numerous studies indicated that cultures vary widely in the prevalence with which their members displayed an understanding of formal operations on the kind of tasks that Piaget and others had used to measure it – scholars believed that in many cultures formal operational thought does not develop, especially those cultures that did not have formal schooling

Piaget responded – suggested that even though all persons reach the potential for formal operational thinking, they apply it to areas in which their culture has provided them with the most experience and expertise. If you use materials and tasks familiar to the people in different cultures and relevant to their daily lives, they will likely display formal operational thinking under those conditions

Now there is widespread support among scholars for the proposition that the stage of formal operations constitutes a universal human potential, but the forms it takes in each culture are derived from the kinds of cognitive requirements people in the culture face

Question 26

Type of thinking beyond formal operations, involving greater awareness of the complexity of real life situations, such as in the use of pragmatism and reflective judgement

Answer 26

Postformal thinking

Piaget believed that cognitive maturation was complete once formal operations was fully attained at age 20. However, research indicates that cognitive development often continues in important ways during emerging adulthood, inspiring theories of cognitive development beyond formal operations- postformal thinking

Question 27

Two of the most notable aspects of postformal thinking in emerging adulthood concern advances in:

Answer 27

Pragmatism and reflective judgement

Question 28

Type of thinking that involves adapting logical thinking to the practical constraints of real-life situations

Answer 28

Pragmatism

These theories propose that the problems faced in normal adult life often contain complexities and inconsistencies that cannot be addressed with the logic of formal operations
According to Labouvie-Vief, cognitive development in emerging adulthood is distinguished from adolescent thinking by a greater recognition and incorporation of practical limitations to logical thinking – adolescents exaggerate the extent to which logical thinking will be effective in real life, whereas emerging adults have a growing awareness of how social factors and factor specific to a given situation must be taken into account in approaching most of life’s problems

Question 29

Describe how formal operational thought can be found among in Inuit adolescents

Answer 29

Until recent decades, Inuit children and adolescents had never attended school, if they had tried to perform the tasks of formal operations, they probably would have done poorly

However, adolescent boys would have used formal operations when hunting by themselves. They would have used hypothetical-deductive reasoning to figure out why their hunt was unsuccessful on a particular outing

Adolescent girls who had to tan hides by themselves at the age of 14, may have ruined a hide and had to ask where in the process did she go wrong, working her way back through the various steps in the process, trying to identify her error – this is also a formal operational thinking, considering various hypotheses in order to identify a promising one to test

Question 30

Type of thinking that develops in emerging adulthood, involving a growing awareness that most problems do not have a single solution and that problems must often be addressed with crucial pieces of information missing

Answer 30

Dialectical thought

A theory presented by Michael Basseches
For example, people may need to decide whether to quit a job they dislike without knowing whether their next job will be more satisfying.

Some cultures may promote dialectical thinking more than others – for example, it has been proposed that Chinese culture traditionally promotes dialectical thought by advocating an approach to knowledge that strives to reconcile contradictions and combine opposing perspectives by seeking a middle ground. In contrast, the European American approach tends to apply logic in a way that polarizes contradictory perspectives in an effort to determine which is correct

Question 31

The capacity to evaluate the accuracy and logical coherence of evidence and arguments

Answer 31

Reflective judgement

A cognitive quality that has been found to develop in emerging adulthood. One influential theory of reflective judgement in emerging adulthood is proposed by William Perry.

Question 32

Cognitive tendency to see situations and issues in polarized, absolute, black-and-white terms

Answer 32

Dualistic thinking

Question 33

Cognitive approach entailing recognition that there is more than one legitimate view of things and that it can be difficult to justify one position as the true or accurate one

Answer 33

Multiple thinking

Question 34

Cognitive ability to recognize the legitimacy of competing points of view but also compare the relative merits of competing views

Answer 34

Relativism

Question 35

Cognitive status in which persons commit themselves to certain points of view they believe to be the most valid while at the same time being open to reevaluating their views if new evidence is presented to them

Answer 35

Commitment

Question 36

Describe William Perry’s theory of the development of reflective judgement in emerging adulthood according to his studies of college students in their late teens and early 20s

Answer 36

Adolescents and first year college students tend to engage in dualistic thinking – situations and issues are in polarized terms – they lack reflective judgement

Reflective judgement begins to develop for most people in their late teens:
First a stage of multiple thinking takes place – two or more sides to every story, difficult to justify one position as the true or accurate one – people tend to value all points of view equally.

By the early 20s, multiple thinking develops into relativism – able to recognize the legitimacy of competing points of view and attempt to compare the merits of each of view.

By the end of the college years, many emerging adults reached a stage of commitment where they commit themselves to certain points of view they believe to be the most valid and also open to reevaluate if new evidence is presented.

Question 37

An approach to understanding cognition that seeks to delineate the steps involved in the thinking process and how each step is connected to the next

Answer 37

Information-processing approach

Views cognitive development as continuous, or gradual and steady, in comparison to Piaget’s theory which saw cognitive development as discontinuous and separated into distinct stages.
Usually does not have a developmental focus and a focus on how mental structures and ways of thinking change with age, but on the thinking processes that exist at all ages.

Question 38

A view of development as taking place in stages that are distinct from one another rather than as one gradual, continuous process

Answer 38

Discontinuous

Example: Piaget’s theory of cognitive development

Question 39

A view of development as a gradual, steady process rather than as taking place in distinct stages

Answer 39

Continuous

Example: the information-processing approach

Question 40

Description of the information-processing approach to cognition, indicating that it involves breaking down the thinking process into its various components

Answer 40

Componential approach

Question 41

The ability to focus on relevant information while screening out information that is irrelevant

Answer 41

Selective attention

One aspect of selective attention is the ability to analyze a set of information and select the most important parts of it for further attention and – you may monitor information presented in class according to your judgement of the information’s importance. Also a key part of problem-solving – must decide first where to direct your attention

Question 42

The ability to focus on more than one task at a time

Answer 42

Divided attention

Example: reading a book and listening to music at the same time. Adolescents are more adept than preadolescents at these kind of tasks. But divided attention may result in less efficient learning than if attention were focussed entirely on one thing

Question 43

Memory for information that is the current focus of attention

Answer 43

Short-term memory

Has a limited capacity and retains information for only a short time, usually about 30 seconds or less

Question 44

Memory for information that is committed to longer-term storage, so that it can be drawn upon after a period when attention has not been focussed on it

Answer 44

Long-term memory

The capacity is unlimited, and information is retained in definitely

Both short-term and long-term memory improves substantially between childhood and adolescence

Question 45

An aspect of short term memory that refers to where information is stored as it is comprehended and analyzed

Answer 45

Working memory

A mental workbench where you keep information as you are working on it. It is where you analyze and reason about information in the course of decision making, solving problems, and comprehending written and spoken language. The information may be new, or it may be called up from long-term memory, or some combination of the two
Working memory is highly correlated with overall intelligence

Question 46

Memory strategies

Answer 46

Mnemonic devices

Question 47

Describe how long term memory improves in adolescence

Answer 47

Adolescents are more likely to use mnemonic devices, such as organizing information into coherent patterns.

Adolescents have more experience and more knowledge than children do, and these advantages enhance the effectiveness of long-term memory. Having more knowledge helps you learn new information and stored in long-term memory
What makes it easier is that you already have information in your memory that you can use to form associations with the new information, which makes it more likely that the new information will be remembered

Question 48

What are three aspects of information processing that advance in adolescence?

Answer 48

Speed, automaticity, and executive functioning

Question 49

Degree of cognitive effort a person needs to devote to processing a given set of information

Answer 49

Automaticity

Adolescents show greater automaticity of processing in a variety of respects, compared with Preadolescent children. Automaticity depends more on experience then on age alone – for example in chess players.
Also closely related to speed and working memory capacity – the more automatic a cognitive task is, the faster you are able to do it – the more automatic a task is, the less working memory capacity it takes, leaving room for other tasks

Question 50

The ability to control and manage cognitive processes. Allows you to combine cognitive abilities such as attention, memory, planning, and reasoning into coherent thoughts and actions

Answer 50

Executive functioning

More advanced in adolescents than in young children – for example, driving an automobile or working as a clerk in a retail store

Question 51

Breaking up a phenomenon into separate parts to such an extent that the meaning and coherence of the phenomenon as a whole becomes lost

Answer 51

Reductionism

A limitation of the information-processing approach according to critics

Question 52

What are two limitations of the information-processing approach according to critics?

Answer 52

1. Information-processing is guilty of reductionism, Breaking up a phenomenon into separate parts to such an extent that the meaning and coherence of the phenomenon as a whole becomes lost – this approach loses the holistic perspective that characterized Piaget’s work and fails to consider how human cognition works as a whole rather than a set of isolated parts. Argue that humans are not computers, which have no capacity for self reflection, and no awareness of how their cognitive processes are integrated, organized, and monitored
2. Computers lack emotions, which must be taken into account when considering cognitive functioning. Adolescents emotions tend to be more intense and more variable then either pre-adolescent children or adults emotions

Question 53

Thinking that involves not merely memorizing information but analyzing it, making judgements about what it means, relating it to other information, and considering ways in which it might be valid or invalid

Answer 53

Critical thinking

Question 54

Describe three ways that cognitive development in adolescence provides the potential for critical thinking

Answer 54

1. A wider range of knowledge is available in long-term memory, across a variety of domains so the ability to analyze and make judgements about new information is enhanced by previous knowledge for comparison
2. The ability to consider different kinds of knowledge simultaneously is increased, which makes it possible to think of new combinations of knowledge
3. More metacognitive strategies are available for applying or gaining knowledge, such as planning and monitoring one’s own comprehension – makes it possible to think more critically about what one is learning

However, critical thinking skills do not develop automatically or inevitably- requires a foundation of skills and knowledge obtained in childhood, along with an educational environment that promotes and values critical thinking

Question 55

Theory of decision-making that describes the decision making process as including (1) identifying the range of possible choices; (2) identifying the consequences that would result from each choice; (3) evaluating the desirability of each consequence; (4) assessing the likelihood of each consequence; (5) and integrating this information

Answer 55

Behavioural decision theory

Question 56

Describe the five steps of the decision-making process in the behavioural decision theory

Answer 56

1. Identifying the range of possible choices
2. Identifying the consequences that would result from each choice
3. Evaluating the desirability of each consequence
4. Assessing the likelihood of each consequence
5. Integrating this information into a decision

Competence in this process varies substantially with age. Compared with preadolescent children, early adolescents generally identify a wider range of possible choices, are better at anticipating the consequences of the possible choices, and are better at evaluating and integrating information, but early adolescents are less skilled than late adolescents or emerging adults

Question 57

Most studies comparing adolescents and adults have found few differences between them in the decision-making processes they use. Why are adolescents so much more likely than adults to take risks such as driving while intoxicated or trying illegal drugs?

Answer 57

May be that adolescents and adults make different evaluations about the desirability of possible consequences and may evaluate these consequences differently. They may also evaluate the potential consequences as less negative than adults would.

The dual processing theory proposes that adolescent decision making is based on two different cognitive systems – analytic and uses the reasoning of formal operations, and heuristic based on intuitive factors such as past experience, emotions, and unconscious motivations. Heuristic factors continue to affect decision-making and do not necessarily improve, adolescents tend to accept an argument based on questionable analytical reasoning if they have intuitive reasons for excepting the argument

Also, some argue that differences in decision making abilities between adolescents and adults should be divided into two broad categories: cognitive factors and psychosocial factors. Mature decision making would be viewed as the product of the interaction between both factors, with competent decision making potentially undermined by a deficiency in either area

Question 58

Term applied especially to cognitive development, meaning that cognitive development affects all areas of thinking, no matter what the topic

Answer 58

Organizational core

Cognitive development in adolescence functions as an organizational core that affects all areas of thinking, no matter what the topic. This means that the cognitive concepts we have discussed in relation to the physical world can be applied to social topics as well

Question 59

How people think about other people, social relationships, and social institutions

Answer 59

Social cognition

Question 60

The ability to understand the thoughts and feelings of others

Answer 60

Perspective taking

Question 61

Stage of perspective taking, often found in early adolescence, in which persons understand that their perspective-taking interactions with others are mutual, in the sense that each side realizes that the other can take their perspective

Answer 61

Mutual perspective taking

Question 62

Realizing that the social perspectives of self and others are influenced not just by their interaction with each other but by their roles in the larger society

Answer 62

Social and conventional system perspective taking

Question 63

Promoting the well-being of others

Answer 63

Prosocial

Perspective taking abilities in one study were found to predict sympathy and prosocial behavior, behaviour that is kind and considerate. Adolescents who are good at perspective taking would also be good at making friends

Question 64

The ability to attribute mental states to one’s self and others, including beliefs, thoughts, and feelings

Answer 64

Theory of mind

Question 65

Describe Robert Selman’s theory of how perspective taking develops through a series of stages, from early childhood through adolescence

Answer 65

Used mainly interviews and provided children and adolescents with hypothetical situations and asked to comment on them.

The research indicates that until adolescence, children’s capacity for perspective taking is limited in various ways. Young children have difficulty separating their own perspective from those of others. Age 6 to 8- begin to develop perspective-taking skills but have difficulty comparing perspectives. Preadolescence, ages 8 to 10 – can understand that others may have a point of view that is different from their own and realize that taking another’s perspective can assist in understanding others intentions and actions.
Early adolescence, ages 10 to 12 – children become capable for the first time of mutual perspective taking – understand that their perspective-taking interactions with others are mutual, just as you understand another person has a perspective that is different from your own, you also realize that the other persons understand that you have a perspective that is different from theirs. Early adolescence have also begun to be able to imagine how their view and the view of another person might appear to a third person.

Late adolescence – social cognition develops further into social and conventional system perspective taking – adolescents come to realize that their social perspectives and those of others are influenced not just by their interactions with each other but also by the roles in the larger society

Question 66

Type of egocentrism in which adolescents have difficulty distinguishing their thinking about their own thoughts from their thinking about the thoughts of others

Answer 66

Adolescent egocentrism

Question 67

Belief that others are acutely aware of and attentive to one’s appearance and behaviour

Answer 67

Imaginary audience

Question 68

A belief in one’s personal uniqueness, often including a sense of invulnerability to the consequences of taking risks

Answer 68

Personal fable

Question 69

The tendency to assume that accidents, diseases, and other misfortunes are more likely to happen to other people than to one’s self

Answer 69

Optimistic bias

Question 70

Attempt to understand human cognition by evaluating cognitive abilities using intelligence tests

Answer 70

Psychometric approach

Question 71

French psychologist who developed the first intelligence test in the early 20th century, which later became known as the Stanford-Binet

Answer 71

Alfred Binet

Question 72

Widely used IQ test developed by Alfred Binet and revised by scholars at Stanford university

Answer 72

Stanford-Binet

Question 73

A measure of a persons intellectual abilities based on a standardized test

Answer 73

Intelligence quotient

Question 74

Intelligence test for children ages 6 to 16, with six verbal and five performance subtests

Answer 74

Wechsler intelligence scale for children (WISC-IV)

Question 75

Intelligence test for persons ages 16 and up, with six verbal and five performance subtests

Answer 75

Wechsler adult intelligence scale (WAIS – IV)

Question 76

In the Wechsler IQ tests, subtests that exam and verbal abilities

Answer 76

Verbal subtests

Question 77

In the Weschler IQ tests, subtests that examine abilities for attention, spatial perception, and speed of processing

Answer 77

Performance subtests

Question 78

In IQ tests, performance results compared to those of other persons of the same age

Answer 78

Relative performance

Relative performance on IQ tests is very stable – people who score higher than average in childhood tend to score higher than average as adolescents and adults, and it is the same for people who score lower than average

Question 79

In IQ tests, performance results compared to those of other persons, regardless of age

Answer 79

Absolute performance

Some interesting patterns of change occur in absolute performance from mid adolescence through young adulthood. For example, absolute scores on the verbal subtests generally improved from age 16 to 38, whereas absolute scores on the performance subtests tended to peak in the mid-20s and then decline

Question 80

Technique for developing a psychological test, in which a typical score for each age is established by testing a large random sample of people from a variety of geographical areas and social class backgrounds

Answer 80

Age norms

The Weschler IQ test has established age norms

Question 81

In a distribution of scores, the point at which half of the population scores above and half below

Answer 81

Median

Question 82

Type of reliability that examines whether or not persons’ scores on one occasion are similar to their scores on another occasion

Answer 82

Test-retest reliability

The Weschler IQ test has high test-retest reliability

Question 83

Mental abilities that involve speed of analyzing, processing, and reacting to information

Answer 83

Fluid intelligence

The kind of ability tapped by the performance subtests in the Weschler IQ tests. This kind of intelligence peaks in emerging adulthood

Question 84

Accumulated knowledge and enhanced judgement based on experience

Answer 84

Crystallized intelligence

Subtests like information, comprehension, and vocabulary assess this kind of intelligence. Scores on these tests tend to improve through the 20s and 30s

Question 85

In longitudinal research, the ability of a variable at a time 1 to predict the outcome of a variable at time 2

Answer 85

Predictive validity

IQ tests have reasonably good predictive validity – high IQ scores in adolescence predict relatively high educational attainment in emerging adulthood and occupational success in young adulthood and beyond and are also predictive of positive outcomes in adulthood on related to education and occupation, for example lower likelihood of divorce or alcoholism

Question 86

Describe the research on adoption studies and IQ

Answer 86

In adoption studies that follow children from birth through adolescence, in early and middle childhood, a substantial correlation in IQ exists between adopted children and their adoptive parents. However, by the time adopted children reach adolescence, the correlation between their IQs and the IQs of their adoptive parents has declined, even though the number of years they have all been in the same family has increased

Why?
Maybe due to a gradual decline with age in the influence of the immediate family environment on intellectual development, and a gradual increase in active genotype-environment interactions, that is, in the degree to which children choose their own environmental influences. In early and middle childhood parents have a great deal of control over the children’s environment, such as how much homework they do, however in adolescence children make many of these decisions for themselves

Question 87

The adoption of children of one race by parents of a different race

Answer 87

Transracial adoption

Question 88

Howard Gardner’s theory that there are eight separate types of intelligence

Answer 88

Theory of multiple intelligences

Question 89

A technique for measuring brain functioning during an ongoing activity

Answer 89

fMRI

Question 90

A technique for assessing ongoing brain functioning, in which a chemical that emits positrons is injected into the body, and detectors measure their activity levels in various parts of the brain

Answer 90

PET scans

Question 91

Describe the research on transracial adoption involving black children who have been adopted by white parents

Answer 91

African-Americans and Latinos generally score lower than whites on the most widely used IQ tests from childhood through adulthood and. Scholars disagree over the source – whether it be due to genetics or or cultural.

Studies have found that when black children are raised in adoptive white families, their IQs are as high or higher than the average IQ for whites. This indicates that overall differences in IQ between whites and African-Americans are due to cultural and social class differences rather than to genetics

Question 92

Describe Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences, including the eight types of intelligence

Answer 92

1. Linguistic
2. Logical-mathematical
3. Spatial- The ability to think three-dimensionally
4. Musical
5. Bodily kinaesthetic – the kind that athletes and dancers excel in
6. Naturalist – ability for understanding natural phenomena
7. Interpersonal – ability for understanding and interacting with others
8. Intrapersonal – self-understanding

Gardner believed that only the two intelligences, linguistic and logical mathematical, are evaluated by intelligence tests
As evidence for the existence of these different types of intelligence, argued that each involves different cognitive skills that can be destroyed by damage to a particular part of the brain, and that each appears in extremes in geniuses as well as an idiots savants

Question 93

The point of transmission between two nerve cells

Answer 93

Synapse

Question 94

Cells of the nervous system, including the brain

Answer 94

Neurons

Question 95

A rapid increase in the production of synaptic connections in the brain

Answer 95

Overproduction or exuberance

Scientists have learned that a considerable thickening of synaptic connections occurs around the time puberty begins, ages 10 to 12. It had been known for decades that over production occurs during prenatal development and through the first 18 months of life, but now it turns out that a new period of overproduction occurs in early adolescence as well

Question 96

The outer layer of the brain, where most of the growth in brain cells occurs during overproduction in adolescence

Answer 96

Gray matter

Question 97

The part of the brain immediately behind the forehead. Known to be involved in higher brain functions such as planning ahead and analyzing complex problems

Answer 97

Frontal lobes

Question 98

Following overproduction, the process by which the number of synapses in the brain are reduced, making brain functioning faster and more efficient but less flexible

Answer 98

Synaptic pruning

Between the ages of 12 and 20 the average brain those at 7% to 10% of its gray matter through synaptic pruning. Use it or lose it seems to be the operating principle

Question 99

Process by which myelin, a blanket of fat wrapped around the main part of the neuron, grows. Myelin serves the function of keeping the brains electrical signals on one path and increasing their speed

Answer 99

Myelination

Question 100

A structure in the lower brain, well beneath the cortex, long thought to be involved only in basic functions such as movement, now known to be important for many higher functions as well, such as mathematics, music, decision-making, and social skills

Answer 100

Cerebellum

Question 101

Russian psychologist who emphasized the cultural basis of cognitive development

Answer 101

Vygotsky

Question 102

The gap between how competently a person performs a task alone and when guided by an adult or more competent peer

Answer 102

Zone of proximal development

Question 103

The degree of assistance provided to the learner in a zone of proximal development, gradually decreasing as the learner’s skills develop

Answer 103

Scaffolding

Question 104

The teaching interaction between two people, often an adult and a child or adolescent, as they participate in a culturally valued activity

Answer 104

Guided participation

Question 105

Approach to human psychology emphasizing that psychological functioning cannot be separated from the culture in which it takes place

Answer 105

Cultural psychology