Lecture 3-Intelligence Flashcards
2 techniques in studying neural changes
positron electron tomography (PET):3D image of functional processes in the body
functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI):detects neural activity in brain by detecting associated changes in blood flow related to changes in energy used by brain cells.
Neural developments over the lifespan
infancy: brain growth
childhood: lateralisation/plasticity-organs change and develop
adolescence: cortical changes
adulthood: gain-loss dialectic
neural developments in infancy
-birth: brain 25% adult weight
-2 years: brain 80% adult weight
SUBCORTICAL STRUCTURES-at birth, most mature
CEREBRAL CORTEX-most immature, particularly frontal cortex
dendrites+synapses+cortex? what happens at infancy..
-rapid growth of dendrites and synaptic connections among brain cells combines with cortical maturation
resultant behaviours: capacity to control neck muscles/motor coordination for sitting upright/gains socialization
Cortex take-over?what happens..
- cortex takes over voluntary control from lower brain centre
- changes in:reflexes/attention/sleep patterns
- positive babinski sign
4 factors in increased brain weight in infancy
neurons
dendrites
synapses
myelination
dendrites
-addition of dendrites and axon terminals to form interconnections with each other.
TRANSIENT EXUBERANCE: initial dramatic burst in growth of dendrites
-allows brain to organise itself in response to stimulation from outside world.
synapses
- growth of synapses, followed by pruning to simplify brains wiring
- streamlines brains activities with maximum efficiency
myelination process
-speeds transmission of neural impulses
-rapid information processing
-brain control over motor functioning
GLIAL CELLS: myelination process governed by this, continues to grow throughout life, unlike neurons
2 developments of cortex
medial temporal lobe: 6 to 12 months-remember and imitate actions/recognize picture of object held in hands/crucial in language development.
frontal temporal lobe: later childhood-higher cognitive functions
primary neural developments in childhood
- increase in brain size
- myelination
- lateralization
- brains plasticity:growth and flexibility to change in response to experience
increase in brain size in childhood
-90% of adult volume by age of 5
GIEDD (2003): mri of brains of 1500 healthy children, growth in brains grey ARBORIZATION
-enhances plasticity in response to early experience
3 myelination process in childhood
- sensory pathways:birth
- hippocampus: 6 years-improved memorisation ability in preschool
- reticular formation: brainstem, alertness and arousal + frontal cortex- process complete in adolescence
lateralisation in childhood
left hemisphere : speech-comprehension, problem solving,analytic thinking, language skills and reading
right hemisphere: music perception, artistic and musical, form/shape perception,spatial cognition, intuitive thought, creative inspiration
-specialisation for handedness and language begins in preschool and ends in puberty
-critical for language development
-implications for second language learning.
neural developments in adolescence
-cognitive abilities are more developed than in childhood
in comparison: abstract/metacognitive/multidimensional/relativistic
3 aspects linked with behavioural/emotional and cognitive development during adolescence
-cortical synapses
-neurotransmitters in limbic system
synaptic pruning and myelination of the prefrontal cortex
cortical synapses
growth means more efficient and focussed
neurotransmitters in limbic system
more emotionality
more responsive to stress
less responsive to rewards
synaptic pruning and myelination of the pre fontal cortex
more efficient at high level cognitive tasks
importance of brain exercise
- brain cells continue to grow and regenerate throughout adult life
- exercising the brain: wards off decline/enhances psychological functions
london taxi driver
-drivers had larger hippocampus in comparison to group of adult
HIPPOCAMPUS: associated with memory and navigation/grew larger the longer the drivers were on the job.
brains declining weight. when?
-weight of average human brain declines from 40 to 90 years
HOWEVER:-gains in adult brain growth also occur within the context of ageing brain
-yet even in old age, brain cognitive development is a dialectical balance of gain against loss. SOC-SELECTIVE OPTIMISATION WITH COMPENSATION
brain development in young adulthood
frontal lobes of cerebral cortex+ limbic system:
- less impulsivity
- increased ability to consider broad plans and make wise decisions: until age of 60, cognitive abilities improve-increased performance on tests of vocabulary, comprehension and general knowledge/learn new knowledge and skills/superior performance on complex mental tasks-reasoning and verbal memory
brain in late adulthood
declines in late adulthood:
- rapid and flexible manipulation of ideas and symbols
- active thinking and reasoning
- mental effort
reasons for decline
- specific disease processes (arteriosclerosis, prolonged alcohol abuse)
- drugs given to treat age related ailments
- terminal illness (alzheimers disease)
- isolated, unstimulating institutional way of life.
Late adult gains in brain
baltes (1992): increased in wisdom
wisdom
- expertise in fundamental pragmatics of life
- rich, procedural knowledge (how to prioritise and weigh risks against probabilistic gains)
- the capacity to avoid dogmatism or being judgemental
- philosophic tolerance of uncertainty and the possibility of change
- ability to infer what others are thinking-improves over the later adult years.
Cognitive Developmental approach
Development thru thinking
2 cognitive theorists
Jean Piaget
Lee vygotsky
Piagets 4 stages of cognitive development
sensori motor stage (birth to 2 years)
pre operational stage (2 years to 7 years)
concrete operational stage (7 years to 11 years)
formal operational stage (11 years onwards)
Sensori motor stage
-integration of sensory and motor abilities
OBJECT PERMANENCE-understanding that an object continue to exist when out of immediate perception
-development of mental representations
pre operational stage
2 to 7 years old
2 sub stages:Pre-operational (2 to 4 yrs old)
-intuitive thought (4 to 7 yrs old)
pre operational stage 2 to 4 yrs old
- use of symbols to represent objects that are not present:deferred imitation, language
- developing intuitive theories about the ways in which the world works: differences in children thought of adult thought.
animism
belief that inanimate objects are alive and have consciousness
egocentrism
belief that all others in the world have the same perspective as the child
concrete operational stage
7 to 11 years old
CONSERVATION: ability to recognise that properties of a substance (number, length, weight, volume) remain constant despite changes in the shape of the substance .
VERTICAL DECALAGE: order in which conservation abilities occur.(number, length, liquid, mass, area, weight, volume)
CLASSIFICATION: ability to group sets of discrete items into a logical category
SERIATION: capacity to order quantifiable objects and events on a continuum
the four operations
REVERSIBILITY-any operation in system has opposing operation that undoes/cancels its influence (addition/subtraction)
CLOSURE-logical & mathematical operations are grouped so that all individual operations are part of the group.
ASSOCIATIVITY- (no sticky notes)
IDENTITY-(no sticky notes)
characteristics of formal operational thought
ABSTRACT-adolescents think more abstractly than children
IDEALISTIC-adolescents often think about what is possible
LOGICAL-adolescents begin to think more like a scientists
Scientific characteristics
hypothetic deductive reasoning:pendulum problem
combinatorial logic: four beaker problem
propositional logic: syllogisms
3 contributions of piagets theory
- shifts with age
- active exploring and constructing of knowledge
- qualitative and quantitative differences from adult thought
dialectical processes
assimilation: fitting new information into an already existing schema
accommodation: changing schema to incorporate new information.occurs when assimilation fails
6 issues with piagets theory
- underestimate abilities
- changes between stages less consistent and global thought
- conversational biases in experimental testing
- ignores importance of social context on cognitive development
- cognitive abilities continue to develop into adulthood.
Vygotsky (1934)
- zone of proximal development
- scaffolding
- cultural factors
Findings of Schaies (1997) research
- early adulthood to middle age-gains in all cognitive abilities
- 50 to 60 years: peak mental performance in language ability, reasoning,memory, geometry, creatively fluent thinking
- 67 years: some decline in numeric ability, but verbal ability and logical reasoning continued to show modest gains.
Schaies stages of cognitive development
adolescence:acquisition-info is acquired young adulthood:achieving-application of knowledge to real life problems middle adulthood (30-60)-executive young old (60-65)-reorganisation old-old-reintegrative
Intelligence
is the ability to : solve problems
-learn and adapt to new situations
4 scientists measuring intelligence:
Francis Galton (hereditary genius): intelligence runs in families. Alfred Binet (binet and simon scale): mental age/mental ability of child compared with what is average for his/her chronological age. Lewis Terman (Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale): scoring scheme based on new scoring scheme, based on Intelligence Quotient (IQ) David Weschler (Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale): first intelligence scale for adults. 2 major innovations: distinguished verbal vs non verbal ability/discarded IQ in favour of new scoring scheme, the normal distribution NORMAL DISTRIBUTION: curve according to which many characteristics are dispersed in population. Characteristics are symmetric, bell shaped, unimodal
Theories of multiple intelligences
- charles spearman: two factor theory
- robert sternberg: triarchic theory of intelligence
- howard gardner: multiple intelligences
2 factor theory of Charles Spearman
- all mental abilities share common core factor, general mental ability, g
- specific mental abilities also exist, s
3 Triarchic theory of intelligence Robert Sternberg
analytic
creative
practical
8 multiple intelligences Howard Gardner
verbal, mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinaesthetic, musical, interpersonal, interpersonal, naturalist
