Steinberg chapter 2

Question 1

How do children and adolescents think differently?

Answer 1

more advanced
more efficient
more effective
more flexible (adolescents are able to move easily between the specific and the abstract, to generate alternative possibilities and explanations systematically, and to compare what they actually observe with what they believe is possible)
more logical
more organized
Greater ability to think about possibilities (as opposed to confined strictly to actualities)
More abstractly
More metacognitively
More multidimensionally
More relativistically (as opposed to absolutely)
Counterfactually (thinking about what might have been)

Question 2

Specifically as it relates to thinking about possibilities, how do children and adolescents differ on this dimension?

Answer 2

Children’s thinking is oriented to the here and now—to things and events that they can observe directly. But adolescents are able to consider what they observe against a backdrop of what is possible. Put another way, for the child, what is possible is what is real; for the adolescent, what is real is just a subset of what is possible.

Question 3

What are some examples of adolescents thinking about possibilities?

Answer 3

how their personalities might change in the future

how they might have been different had they grown up under different circumstances

Adolescents understand who they are is just one possibility of who they could be

Question 4

How does thinking about possibilities enhance one’s ability in mathematical reasoning?

Answer 4

The study of mathematics often requires that you begin with an abstract or theoretical formulation—for example, “the square of a right triangle’s hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides” (the Pythagorean theorem). This theorem is a proposition about all possible right triangles, not just triangles that you might actually observe. In mathematics, you learn how to apply these theorems to concrete examples (that is, real triangles).

Question 5

How does thinking about possibilities enhance one’s ability in scientific reasoning?

Answer 5

Scientific experimentation also involves the ability to generate possibilities systematically. In a chemistry experiment in which you are trying to identify an unknown substance by performing various tests, you must first be able to imagine alternative possibilities for the substance’s identity in order to know what tests to conduct

Question 6

How does thinking about possibilities enhance one’s argumentative skills?

Answer 6

they are better able than children to envision and anticipate the possible responses of an opponent and to have one or more counterarguments handy. Many parents believe that their children become more argumentative during adolescence. What probably happens, though, is that their children become better arguers (Steinberg, 2011). Adolescents don’t accept other people’s points of view unquestioningly—including their parents’ viewpoints. They evaluate them against other theoretically possible beliefs.

Question 7

What types of thinking are examples of thinking about possibilities?

Answer 7

Deductive reasoning
(All hockey players wear mouth guards.
Kim is a hockey player.
Kim wear a mouth guard)
—Deductive reasoning is seldom used      before adolescence, and its development is one of the major intellectual accomplishments of the period (Morris & Sloutsky, 2001) 

Hypothetical thinking

Question 8

How does brain development contribute to the development of deductive reasoning?

Answer 8

DR requires inhibitory control linked to the development of the PFC. For example you might need to put on the cognitive breaks before incorrectly answering this question:

All hockey players wear mouth guards.
Kim is wearing a mouth guard.
Is Kim a hockey player?
(Need more info.)

Question 9

What thinking characteristics are necessary to the formation of hypothetical thinking?
(If-then thinking)

Answer 9

1) to see beyond what is directly observable and
2) to apply logical reasoning to anticipate what might be possible
3) The ability to plan ahead, to see the future consequences of an action, and to provide alternative explanations of events

Question 10

What are the cognitive benefits, generally and argumentative benefits specifically of hypothetical thinking?

Answer 10

Playing devil’s advocate, for example—when you formulate a position contrary to what you really believe in order to challenge someone else’s reasoning—requires hypothetical thinking.
Additionally, this helps in formulating and arguing a viewpoint, because it allows adolescents to think a step ahead of the opposition—a cognitive tool that comes in handy when dealing with parents (“If they come back with ‘You have to stay home and clean up the garage,’ then I’ll remind them about the time they let my sister go out when she had chores to do”).

Question 11

What are the social benefits of hypothetical thinking?

Answer 11

HT facilitates in taking the perspective of others enabling the adolescent to think through what someone else might be thinking or feeling (“If I were in her situation, I would feel pretty angry”)

Question 12

How does hypothetical thinking enhance decision making abilities?

Answer 12

it permits one to plan ahead and foresee the consequences of choosing one alternative over another (“If I go out for the soccer team, then I am going to have to give up my part-time”).

Question 13

What is the difference between concrete thinking and abstract thinking?

Answer 13

Concrete thinking is more bound to observable events and objects. Abstract thinking has the ability to deal with abstract concepts—things that cannot be experienced directly through the senses. Abstract thinking affords thinking in more advanced ways about interpersonal relationships, politics, philosophy, religion, and morality—topics that involve such abstract concepts as friendship, faith, democracy, fairness, and honesty

Question 14

monitoring and managing your own cognitive activity during the thinking process and being able to explain this exercise to others is called what?

Answer 14

Metacognition

Question 15

When you consciously and deliberatively use a strategy for remembering something (such as Every Good Boy Deserves Fun, for the notes of the treble clef in music notation) or when you make sure you’ve understood something you’re reading before going on to the next paragraph are examples of what cognitive process?

Answer 15

Metacognition

Question 16

How does metacognition influence the formation of identity?

Answer 16

Metacognition increases introspection and self-consciousness. When we are introspective, we are thinking about our own emotions. When we are self-conscious, we are thinking about how others think about us. These processes permit the sorts of self-examination and exploration that are important tools for establishing a coherent sense of identity

Question 17

Sometimes the newfound powers of thinking metacognitively and introspectively result in 2 primary problems often referred to as what?

Answer 17

Adolescent egocentrism (extreme self-absorption), comprising imaginary audience and personal fable.

Question 18

A heightened sense of self-consciousness caused by the belief that your behavior is the focus of everyone else’s attention is known as what?

Answer 18

Imaginary audience

Question 19

What do we know about brain maturation that further explains or compounds the issue of imaginary audience?

Answer 19

the parts of the brain that process social information—such as perceptions of what others are thinking—undergo significant change during early adolescence. In fact, brain imaging studies indicate that compared to adults adolescents’ self-perceptions rely more on what they believe others think of them.

Question 20

What are the characteristics of the personal fable including its costs and benefits?

Answer 20

Characteristics:

a. The egocentric and erroneous belief that his or her experiences are unique
b. Invincibility
c. Invulnerability

Costs: heightened risk for risk-taking (girl having unprotected sex thinking she’ll never get pregnant OR an inconsolable teen impervious to consolation in the wake of a relationship breakup)

Benefits:

a. enhances self-esteem
b. Enhances feelings of self-importance

Question 21

Is adolescent egocentrism strictly an adolescent phenomena?

Answer 21

Yes and No.
Imaginary audience tends to dissipate over time, but the personal fable
persist through the adult years (Frankenberger, 2000; Quadrel, Fischhoff, & Davis, 1993). Ask any adult cigarette smoker if she or he is aware of the scientific evidence linking cigarette smoking with heart and lung disease, and you’ll see that the personal fable is quite common among many individuals who have long since left adolescence.

Question 22

What is an example of the difference in multidimensional thinking among children and adolescents?

Answer 22

when a certain hitter comes up to the plate in a baseball game, a preadolescent who knows that the hitter has a good home-run record might exclaim that the batter will hit the ball out of the stadium. An adolescent, however, would consider the hitter’s record in relation to the specific pitcher on the mound and would weigh both factors, or dimensions, before making a prediction (perhaps this player often hits homers against left-handed pitchers but frequently strikes out against righties)

Question 23

What cognitive ability often develops concurrently with multidimensional thinking?

Answer 23

The development of a more sophisticated understanding of probability.

For example, Suppose I give you a set of blue and yellow beads. I ask you to divide them into two containers so that the containers have different numbers of beads overall but that the probability of reaching into a container and picking a blue bead is the same for each. In order to do so, you would have to vary the number of blue beads and the number of yellow beads between the two containers, because the probability of drawing a blue bead is a function of both the number of blue beads and the number of yellow beads. It is not until early adolescence that individuals can solve this sort of problem successfully (Falk & Wilkening, 1998.)

Question 24

How does the development of multidimensional thinking impact social cognition?

Answer 24

Adolescents describe themselves and others in more complicated terms (“I’m both shy and extroverted”) and find it easier to look at problems from multiple perspectives (“I know that’s the way you see it, but try to look at it from her point of view”). Understanding that people’s personalities are not one-sided, or that social situations can have different interpretations, permits the adolescent to have far more sophisticated—and far more complicatedself-conceptions and relationships.

Question 25

How does the development of multidimensional thinking impact our understanding of the complexities and intricacies of language?

Answer 25

It allows us to both understand and appreciate dimensions of language such as sarcasm, satire, irony, metaphors, puns, etc..
How does this development occur?
By attending simultaneously to multiple dimensions of speech: a combination of what is said, how it is said, and the context in which it is said.

Question 26

What cognitive development during adolescence revolves around the nature of knowledge?

Answer 26

Relativistic thinking (as opposed to absolute thinking).

This is a shift from seeing things in absolute terms—in black and white—to seeing things as relative. Compared to children, adolescents are more likely to question others’ assertions and less likely to accept “facts” as absolute truths. As expected this can create conflict between parents and adolescents.

Question 27

How does Piaget describe cognitive development?

Answer 27

cognitive development proceeds through a fixed sequence of qualitatively distinct stages with earlier stages of thinking being incorporated into new, more advanced, and more adaptive forms of reasoning.

during adolescence, individuals develop and deploy a special type of thinking that is fundamentally different from the type of thinking employed by children

Question 28

According to Piagetian theorists what is the chief feature that differentiates adolescent thinking from that of children?

Answer 28

Abstract logical reasoning

Question 29

Is the development of formal operational thinking universal, consistent across time and situations?

Answer 29

No. No. No.
Not all adolescents (or, for that matter, all adults) develop formal-operational thinking (not universal) or employ it regularly (time) and in a variety of situations.

Question 30

Can formal operational thinking be fostered through intervention?

Answer 30

Some research has found that adolescents who have been taught how to use deductive reasoning are more likely to display formal thinking, which suggests that the development of advanced reasoning abilities can be facilitated by training (Morris & Sloutsky, 1998).

Question 31

How accurate were Piaget’s claims that cognitive development unfolded in a stage-like fashion AND that formal operational thinking is the type of thinking most characteristic of the stage of adolescence?

Answer 31

A paucity of proof exists for the posits of Piaget

Little evidence exists that cognitive development proceeds in a stagelike fashion and that the stage of formal operations is the stage of cognitive development characteristic of adolescence.

Question 32

If Piaget was the not accurate in his claims then what is a more accurate way to describe cognitive development during adolescence?

Answer 32

advanced reasoning capabilities develop gradually and continuously from childhood through adolescence and beyond (more like a ramp than like a staircase).

Formal operational thinking is in the minority among adolescents and is contingent on the situation especially familiar situations (Kuhn, 2009).

Question 33

What specific cognitive abilities improve as individuals move from childhood into adolescence and beyond?

Answer 33

Attention
Memory
Metacognition
Organization 
Processing speed
(A.M. MOP)

Question 34

What 4 components under the category of attention develop during adolescents
(SIDS)

Answer 34

1) selective attention
a. To focus on one stimulus (a reading assignment) and tune out another (the electronic beeping of a younger brother’s video game)

2) divided attention
a. paying attention to two sets of stimuli at the same time (such as studying while texting with a friend)

3) sustained attention
a. the ability to concentrate and stay focused on complicated tasks, such as reading and comprehending difficult material.

4) impulse control (linked to PFC dev.)
a. stopping yourself from looking up at a commercial that suddenly appears on the television in the corner of the room while you are reading.

Question 35

What 3 types of memory improve during adolescence?

Answer 35

Working memory
Long term memory
Autobiographical memory 
  a. personally meaningful events from earlier in life
  b. an aspect of long-term memory

Question 36

What happens to autobiographical memory during early adolescence?

Answer 36

It stabilizes allowing the recollection of memories to when they were about two and a half years old (Reese, Jack, & White, 2010).

Question 37

The capacity of adults to remember details about the people, places, and events they encountered during adolescence better than those from other years is a phenomenon called what?

Answer 37

The reminiscence bump (Rubin, 1986).

Question 38

What do not explain the reminiscence bump?

Answer 38

NOT:

1) better memory because basic memory abilities remain strong until midlife.
2) so many important events happen for the first time during adolescence (e.g., first love, first job, first time living away from parents).
a. Even mundane events that took place during adolescence are recalled better than those that happened at other ages.
b. we tend to remember other, less personal things from adolescence better, too—things like movies, books, music, and current events (Janssen, Chessa, & Murre, 2007).

Question 39

What factors explain the reminiscence bump?

Answer 39

1) Something is different about how everyday experiences are encoded during adolescence, as if the brain’s “recording device” is calibrated to be hypersensitive at this age.
a. When certain chemicals in the brain are released at the same time an event is experienced, the event is more easily remembered than when levels of these chemicals are not as high; therefore, the adolescent brain is chemically primed to encode memories more deeply (Knutson & Adcock, 2005).

Question 40

Provide an example of why, in some cases, WM more important than LTM during adolescence.

Answer 40

For example, in order to answer multiple-choice questions, you need to be able to remember each option long enough to compare it with the other choices as you read them. Think for a moment of how frustrating it would be to try to solve a multiple-choice problem if, by the time you had read the final potential answer, you had forgotten the first one! (Amso, Haas, McShane, & Badre, 2014.)

Question 41

How does improvements in working memory coincide with and depend on brain development?

Answer 41

Improvements in working memory coincide with the continued maturation of brain regions during adolescence that are responsible for this aspect of cognition (Conklin, Luciana, Hooper, & Yarger, 2007; Hanson et al., 2012; Jolles, Kleibeuker, Rombouts, & Crone, 2011). More specifically, advances in working memory during adolescence are linked to the ways in which these areas of the brain are organized and connected, which permits more efficient and powerful information processing (Finn, Sheridan, Kam, Hinshaw, & D’Esposito, 2010; Ghetti, DeMaster, Yonelinas, & Bunge, 2010).

Question 42

Describe changes in information processing speed during adolescence.

Answer 42

Regardless of the task employed, the speed of information processing increases markedly between ages 5 and 15 and then begins to level off. More specifically, the difference in speed between a 9-year-old and a 12-year-old is greater than that between a 12-year-old and a 15-year-old, which, in turn, is greater than that between a 15-year-old and an 18-year-old (see Figure 1) (Kail & Ferrer, 2007). Processing speed does not change very much between middle adolescence and young adulthood (Brahmbhatt, McAuley, & Barch, 2008).

Question 43

Describe how adolescents are more advanced in information processing organizational strategies
compared to children.

Answer 43

1) more planful
a. they are more likely to approach a problem with an appropriate strategy in mind
2) more flexible
a. they use different strategies in different situations.

What are two examples of adolescents being more planful and more flexible?

1) using memory strategies such as mnemonic devices (HOMES)
2) reading a textbook chapter. Adolescents may employ a number of different predetermined strategies such as outlining, highlighting, marginalia, pre-reading for the big ideas, etc.
3) Developmental differences in levels of planning during childhood and adolescence can be seen quite readily by comparing individuals’ approaches to the guessing game 20 Questions. With age, individuals’ strategies become increasingly more efficient—when guessing the name of a person, an adolescent might begin by asking whether the person is dead or alive, then male or female, and so forth, whereas a young child might just start randomly throwing out the names of specific people (Drumm & Jackson, 1996.)

Question 44

What are the social costs of improvements in metacognition?

Answer 44

1) greater sensitivity to social information
a. heightened self-consciousness
b. thinking out thinking exposes deficiencies in thinking leading to greater self consciousness
c. thinking about what others are thinking you’re thinking also heightens self consciousness.

Question 45

What are the benefits of improvements in metacognition during adolescence?

Answer 45

1) increases in monitoring of their own learning (Crone, Somsen, Zanolie, & Van der Molen, 2006; Kuhn, 2009.)
a. They can reflect on and assess how well they are learning the material, evidenced by reading comprehension monitoring
b. They can speed up or slow down their learning based on the level of content difficulty

Question 46

When do brain systems responsible for metacognition develop and when do they typically fully develop?

Answer 46

Brain systems responsible for metacognitive performance continue to mature throughout adolescence and early adulthood (Ladouceur, Dahl, & Carter, 2007).

Question 47

By the age of 15 adolescents are just as proficient as adults in what basic cognitive abilities?

Answer 47

a. working memory
b. attention
c. logical reasoning abilities (Gathercole, Pickering, Ambridge, & Wearing, 2004; Luciana, Conklin, Hooper, & Yarger, 2005).

Question 48

By their mid 20’s people are still developing what sophisticated cognitive skills?

Answer 48

a. thinking creatively
b. planning ahead
c. judging the relative costs and benefits of a risky decision (Kleibeuker, Koolschijn, Jolles, De Dreu, & Crone, 2013; Albert & Steinberg, 2011b)
d. coordination of cognition and emotion, when feelings might interfere with logical reasoning (for example, when you have to make a decision when you are angry or when faced with peer pressure) (Albert, Chein, & Steinberg, 2013).

Question 49

By what age does the brain reach its adult size? (Suggesting that advances in thinking during adolescence are not a function of brain size increases)

Answer 49

10

Question 50

For many years, scientists could not find links between physical changes in the brain and improvements in cognitive functioning during adolescence until what methods emerged?

Answer 50

functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)

diffusion tensor imaging (DTI).

Question 51

What do functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) demonstrate in the adolescent brain?

Answer 51

These techniques allow researchers to:

1) take pictures of individuals’ brains and compare their anatomy and activity.
2) study changes in brain structure (for instance, certain parts of the brain are relatively smaller in childhood than adolescence, while others are relatively larger)
3) study brain function (for instance, adolescents may use different parts of the brain than children when performing the same task) (e.g., Dosenbach et al., 2010; O’Hare, Lu, Houston, Bookheimer, & Sowell, 2008; Wang, Huettel, & De Bellis, 2008).

Question 52

How do scientists study the intersection of brain anatomy and brain functioning?

Answer 52

1) brain growth and development in other animals (because all mammals go through puberty, it is possible to study “adolescent” brain development in other species)
2) studies of changes in brain chemistry
3) postmortem studies of brain anatomy.

Question 53

What does the DTI test tell us about brain development?

Answer 53

1) reflects between and within brain regions interconnectivity and compares patterns of interconnections among people at different ages (e.g., Klingberg, 2006), allowing better understanding of how “communication” patterns linking different regions of the brain change with development.
Ex. Researchers use fMRI to examine patterns of activity in various regions of the brain while individuals are performing a different tasks (for example, recalling a list of words, viewing photos of friends, or listening to music).

Question 54

What do fMRI’s reflect?

Answer 54

1) how patterns of brain activity differ during different tasks (for example, when we are actively reading versus being read to)
2) whether people of different ages show different patterns of brain activity while performing the very same task.
Ex. for instance, my collaborators and I are studying how patterns of brain activity vary when individuals perform tasks either alone or with their friends watching them, and whether the ways in which the presence of friends affects brain activity differ between teenagers and adults (e.g., Smith, Steinberg, Strang, & Chein, 2015).