TB - Ch 2 Flashcards
adolescent egocentrism
Extreme self-absorption, often a consequence of too much “thinking about thinking.”
imaginary audience
The belief, often brought on by the heightened self-consciousness of early adolescence, that everyone is watching and evaluating one’s behavior.
personal fable
An adolescent’s belief that he or she is unique and therefore not subject to the rules that govern other people’s behavior
cognitive-developmental view
A perspective on development, based on the work of Piaget, that takes a qualitative, stage-theory approach.
sensorimotor period
The first stage of cognitive development, according to Piaget, spanning the period roughly between birth and age 2.
preoperational period
The second stage of cognitive development, according to Piaget, spanning roughly ages 2 to 5.
concrete operations
The third stage of cognitive development, according to Piaget, spanning the period roughly between age 6 and early adolescence.
formal operations
The fourth stage of cognitive development, according to Piaget, spanning the period from early adolescence through adulthood.
information-processing perspective
A perspective on cognition that derives from the study of artificial intelligence and attempts to explain cognitive development in terms of the growth of specific components of the thinking process (such as memory).
selective attention
The process by which we focus on one stimulus while tuning out another.
divided attention
The process of paying attention to two or more stimuli at the same time.
working memory
That aspect of memory in which information is held for a short time while a problem is being solved.
long-term memory
The ability to recall something from a long time ago.
autobiographical memory
The recall of personally meaningful past events.
reminiscence bump
The fact that experiences from adolescence are generally recalled more than experiences from other stages of life.
functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
A technique used to produce images of the brain, often while the subject is performing some sort of mental task.
diffusion tensor imaging (DTI)
A technique used to produce images of the brain that shows connections among different regions.
brain structure
The physical form and organization of the brain.
brain function
Patterns of brain activity
neurons
Nerve cells
synapse
The gap in space between neurons, across which neurotransmitters carry electrical impulses.
neurotransmitters
Specialized chemicals that carry electrical impulses between neurons.
synaptic pruning
The process through which unnecessary connections between neurons are eliminated, improving the efficiency of information processing.
myelination
The process through which brain circuits are insulated with myelin, which improves the efficiency of information processing.
plasticity
The capacity of the brain to change in response to experience.
developmental plasticity
Extensive remodeling of the brain’s circuitry in response to experiences during childhood and adolescence, while the brain is still maturing.
adult plasticity
Relatively minor changes in brain circuits as a result of experiences during adulthood, after the brain has matured.
prefrontal cortex
The region of the brain most important for sophisticated thinking abilities, such as planning, thinking ahead, weighing risks and rewards, and controlling impulses.
limbic system
An area of the brain that plays an important role in the processing of emotional experience, social information, and reward and punishment.
response inhibition
The suppression of a behavior that is inappropriate or no longer required.
executive function
More advanced thinking abilities, enabled chiefly by the maturation of the prefrontal cortex, especially in early adolescence.
functional connectivity
The extent to which multiple brain regions function at the same time, which improves during adolescence.
dopamine
A neurotransmitter especially important in the brain circuits that regulate the experience of reward.
serotonin
A neurotransmitter that is especially important for the experience of different moods.
positive risk taking
Risk taking that promotes healthy psychological development
zone of proximal development
In Vygotsky’s theory, the level of challenge that is still within the individual’s reach but that forces an individual to develop more advanced skills.
scaffolding
Structuring a learning situation so that it is just within the reach of the student.
social cognition
The aspect of cognition that concerns thinking about other people, about interpersonal relations, and about social institutions.
mentalizing
The ability to understand someone else’s mental state.
theory of mind
The ability to understand that others have beliefs, intentions, and knowledge that may be different from one’s own.
social conventions
The norms that govern everyday behavior in social situations.
behavioral decision theory
An approach to understanding adolescent risk taking, in which behaviors are seen as the outcome of systematic decision-making processes.
sensation seeking
The pursuit of experiences that are novel or exciting.
compaired to children, adolesence are
• Adolescents are better at thinking about what is possible, instead of limiting their thinking to what is real.
• Adolescents are better at thinking about abstract things.
• Adolescents think more often about the process of thinking itself.
• Adolescents’ thinking is more often multidimensional, rather than limited to a single issue.
• Adolescents are more likely to see things as relative, rather than as absolute.
Thinking about possibilites
child, are who you are
adolsences, are one possibility if who you could be
hypotheticals
Thinking about abstracct concepts
growth of socal thinking directly liked to ability to think abstractly
Thinking about thinking
mettacogntion
better at montering own learning
brain systems involved in monotoring own preformance mature
can lead to adolsence egotism
thinking in multible demtions
give much more complecated answers
Adolsent relativsm
shift in seing thins in absolute terms to relative
perspectives on adolsentent thinking
two viewpoints, piagetian perspective and indormation processing perspective
Paigetian view
conative devolopmental vide
cognative devolopment preces though four stages
(1) the sensorimotor period (from birth until about age 2),
(2) the preoperational period (from about age 2 until about age 5),
(3) the period of concrete operations (from about age 6 until early adolescence), and
(4) the period of formal operations (from adolescence through adulthood).
Information processing view
overarching concept formal operatinos
four areas in which imporvment occours
attention, memeory, procesing speed, organization
Attention
selective vs divided
Memory
autobographical,
reminsence bump
hypersensitive
Speed
processing speed does not change very much between middle adolsence and young adulthood
organization
more planfool
mnemonic devices - other stratges to form better on accademic tasks
by age 15
adolsences just as proficent as adults in basic cognative abilites
Male brains are __ laeger than feemale
10%
1 year, numer of synapses are __ the number in adult brain
twice
malubility of brain
durring first three years and another during adolsences
adult plasticiry
- dosent fundementaly alter the neural structure of the brain
- less malauble during periods of adult plasticity than devolopmental plasitiscty (connections have become hardneed)
- devooping can be influenced by far wider range of experences (why effects of drugs are lasting durring adolsencenc vs adulthood)
Changes in brain function during adolsences
- paterns of activation within preforntal cortex become more focoused *responce inhibion, executive function)
- more likely to use multiple partsd of the brain simulatnously and coordinate between prefornal and other regions (functional conectivity)
impulsivity is assocated with ___ but not ___
maladaptive
not postive risk taking
social cognition in adolsence
(1) theory of mind; (2) thinking about social relationships; (3) understanding social conventions; and (4) conceptions of laws, civil liberties, and rights
Theory of Mind
mentalizing - ablitly to understand otehrs metnal state
ablility to understand that people think differnt than own
able to interpret feelings of others
improvements in communication
socal reclationships
children think its wrong to excleed peers from socal activits
adolsence think more od gorup dinamic
transfomr belefs about authority - question what parents should have authority over
social conventions
see as arbutrary socal expectations and concequently insuffecent reson for compliance
ultimatly see than social conventions help cordinate interactions amound pepole
conveptions of laws civl liberties and rights
better able to step outside of themselves and see from other vantage points
beter able to see socal ruls folow are not ablsoute and up for questioning
devolop more differantage iunderstanding of social norms
behavior decision therory
all behaviors, including risky ones, can be analyzed as the outcome of a process involving five steps: (1) identifying alternative choices, (2) identifying the consequences that might follow from each choice, (3) evaluating the costs and benefits of each possible consequence, (4) assessing the likelihood of each possible consequence, and (5) combining all this information according to some decision rule
diferences in valuses and priories - more risk taking,sencation seeking - adults have more inution (gut level feeling)
