PSYCH CHP 3

they fail to consider how human cognition works as a whole rather than as a set of isolated parts

-Computers have no capacity for self-reflection, and no awareness of how their cognitive processes are integrated, organized, and monitored. -Because self-reflection and self-awareness are central to human cognition, critics argue, overlooking them leaves the information-processing approach insufficient and inadequate.

Cognitive development in emerging adulthood is distinguished from adolescent thinking by a greater recognition of practical limitations to logical thinking

Labouvie-Vief

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

Parents still have important influences on adolescents, but adolescents have much more autonomy than younger childre

First, it is clear that the brain grows a lot more, and a lot differently, than we had known in the past.

Second, the new findings confirm in many ways what we had known from studies using other methods, that adolescents are different and more advanced in their thinking than children are, but their cognitive development is not yet mature

Daniel Keating (2004, 2012), cognitive development in adolescence provides the potential for critical thinking in several ways

-First, a wider range of knowledge is available in long-term memory, across a variety of domains; thus, the ability to analyze and make judgments -Second, the ability to consider different kinds of knowledge simultaneously is increased, which makes it possible to think of new combinations of knowledg -Third, more metacognitive strategies are available for applying or gaining knowledge, such as planning and monitoring one's own comprehension;

Gray (1990) suggests that Piaget underestimated how much effort, energy, and knowledge it takes to use formal operations.

-Formal operations might be useful for scientific thinking, but most people will not go to the time and trouble to apply it to every aspect of their daily lives -do not feel the need to understand the true nature of the problem, they just want it resolved

2 types of short term memory

-One type is involved in the input and storage of new information: limited capacity, recite numbers -remains stable after about age 16 at an average of seven units of information

optimistic bias comes out of health psychology, and it concerns a specific aspect of the personal fable: the tendency to assume that accidents,

-Smokers were more likely than nonsmokers to believe that they would not die as a consequence of smoking for 30 to 40 years. -Most people who smoke for a few years become addicted and can't stop," 48% of the adult smokers and 60% of the adolescent smokers believed that "I could smoke for a few years and then quit if I wanted to." -optimistic bias with regard to addiction

-working memory (Kail & Hall, 2001).

-Working memory is a "mental workbench" where you keep the information as you are working on it: making decisions, solving problems, and comprehending written and spoken language. -size of a person's working memory is highly correlated with overall intelligence

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 informatio

-adults have found that adolescents take more risks than adults on "hot tasks" that have immediate outcome feedback on rewards and losses (Defoe et al., 2015). ------Adolescents appear to be more influenced than adults are by strong emotions and by the presence of friends

Sarcasm

-another example of complex communication -that adolescents used sarcasm for multiple purposes, such as talking about socially sensitive topics and situations, and reaffirming affiliations with friend, resilience -

Formal Operations in Adolescence

-begins at about age 11 and reaches completion somewhere between ages 15 and 20, -stage most relevant to cognitive development in adolescence -require logical and systematic thinking, but formal operations allow adolescents to reason about complex tasks and problems involving multiple variables

2 to about age 7, is the preoperational stage.

-capable of representing the world symbolically, through the use of language and in play such as using a broom to represent a horse -limited in their ability to use mental operations—that is, in their ability to manipulate objects mentally

One common task is the dimensional change card sort (DCCS)

-cards for this task show images that combine two dimensions, such as a red circle and a blue square. People are first asked to sort based on one dimension (e.g., color), and then to switch to the other (e.g., shape

Concrete operations 7-11

-children become more adept at using mental operations, and this skill leads to a more advanced understanding of the world. -children in this stage focus on what can be experienced and manipulated in the physical environment.

Labouvie-Vief found that adolescents tended to respond strictly in terms of the logic of formal operations:

-emerging adults considered many possible dimensions of the situation -rather than relying strictly on logic, with a belief in definite wrong and right answers, the emerging adults tended to be postformal thinkers in the sense that they realized that the problems of real life often involve a great deal of complexity and ambiguity

Individual Differences in Formal Operations

-even in emerging adulthood and beyond, a large proportion of people use formal operations either inconsistently or not at all. -a great range of individual differences exists in the extent to which people use formal operations. -

The original model for the information-processing approach was the computer (Hunt, 1989)

-functions of a computer are separated into capacities for attention, processing, and memory -pendulum problem: their attention to the most relevant aspects of the problem, process the results of each trial, remember the results -

-It is only with formal operations that we can find the right answer to a problem like this and explain why it is the right answer

-hypothetical thinking involved in a scientific experiment. "Let's see, it could be weight; let me try changing the weight while keeping everything else the same. -the formal operational thinker arrives at an answer that not only is correct but can be defended and explained -termed hypothetical-deductive reasoning, is at the heart of Piaget's concept of formal operations.

Long-term memory

-is a memory for information that is committed to longer-term storage, so that you can draw on it again after a period when your attention has not been focused on it. -You can probably think of things you experienced 10 or more years ago that you can still call up from your long-term memory

One goal of this research was to establish age norms. Age norming .

-means that 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 -individual's IQ score is determined by comparing the individual's performance on the test to the "norm," or typical score, for people the same age

10 to 12, children become capable for the first time of mutual perspective taking. That is, early adolescents understand that their perspective-taking interactions with others are mutual

-mutual perspective taking comes social and conventional system perspective taking, meaning that 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 their roles in the larger society

Research Focus box indicates,

-relative performance on IQ tests is stable—people who score higher than average in childhood tend to score higher than average as adolescents and adults, and people who score

The imaginary audience

-results from adolescents' limited capacity to distinguish between their thinking about themselves and their thinking about the thoughts of others - so acutely aware of how they might appear to others -self-conscious -imaginary audience is not something that simply disappears when adolescence ends. Adults are also egocentric to some extent.

Attention

-stimulus information that enters the senses: what you see, hear, and touch is processed no further -if you are focusing on what you are reading, most of this information goes no further than sensory memory -

perspective taking

-the ability to understand the thoughts and feelings of others, kids are bad at first but grow up to talk to others about them -Robert Selman (1976, 1980; Selman & Byrne, 1974) was an important early theorist and researcher on the development of perspective taking: the egocentrism of childhood gradually develops into the mature perspective-taking ability of adolescence, interviews -ages 6 to 8, children begin to develop perspective-taking skills but have difficulty comparing perspectives -

instead of viewing cognitive development as discontinuous, that is, as separated into distinct stages, the way Piaget did,

-the information-processing approach views cognitive change as continuous, meaning gradual and steady. -The focus is not on how mental structures and ways of thinking change with age but on the thinking processes that exist at all ages

executive functioning

-which means the ability to control and manage their cognitive processes -allows you to combine cognitive abilities such as attention, memory, planning, and reasoning into coherent thoughts and actions. -children cannot handle the cognitive challenges involved in driving an automobil

Learning how to coordinate the activities of the senses with motor activities is highly characteristic of youth ages _________ and reflects the _________ stage of cognitive development.

0 to 2; sensorimotor

Between the ages of 12 and 20, the average brain loses up to ________ % of its gray matter through a process called ________.

10, synapic pruning

driving force behind development from one stage to the next is maturation

A reasonably normal environment is necessary for cognitive development to occur, but the effect of the environment on cognitive development is limited

Fluid intelligence refers to mental abilities that involve speed of analyzing, processing, and reacting to information,

Crystallized intelligence, in contrast, refers to accumulated knowledge and enhanced judgment based on experience.

Basseches views cognitive development in emerging adulthood as involving a recognition that formal logic can rarely be applied to the problems most people face in their daily lives.

Dialectical thought is Basseches's term for the kind of thinking that develops in emerging adulthood, involving a growing awareness that problems

abstract thinking and thinking about thinking (called metacognition), as well as the capacity for complex thinking.

Examples of abstract concepts include time, friendship, and faith.

Metaphor

Formal operational thinking is also more complex than the kind of thinking that occurs in concrete operations. -complex because they have more than one meaning, the literal, concrete meaning as well as less obvious, more subtle meanings. -In later adolescence and emerging adulthood, understanding of the metaphors became more abstract and more focused on their social meanings

Metacognition

- "thinking about thinking," or metacognition, enables adolescents to learn and solve problems more efficiently -"think out loud" so that the researchers could record their metacognitive processes. Self-awareness -studying you look back at notes -ask yourself abt what your learned -also applies to social topics—thinking about what you think of others and what they think of you.

aspect of processing is automaticity

- , how much cognitive effort the person needs to devote to processing the information -you have done problems like this so much in the course of your life that they are almost automatic -Automaticity is closely related to speed and to working memory capacity -The more automatic a task is, the less working memory capacity it takes, leaving more room for other tasks -

Short-term memory

- is memory for information that is currently the focus of your attention. -It has a limited capacity and retains information for only about 30 seconds or less

long-term memory improves in adolescence is that adolescents have more experience and more knowledge than children do

The more information you have in your long-term memory, the more you can assimilate new information and the less accommodation is required.

by evaluating cognitive abilities with intelligence tests is known as the psychometric approach

Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-V) Intelligence test for children aged 6 to 16, with six Verbal and five Performance subtests. Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-V) for people ages 16 and up -tests contain six Verbal subtests and five Performance subtests.

late 20s, according to Perry, multiple thinking develops into relativism

able to recognize the legitimacy of competing points of view

Perry (1970/1999)

adolescents and first-year college students tend to engage in dualistic thinking, which means they often see situations and issues in polarized terms—an act is either right or wrong/ they lack reflective judgment

adolescents become less egocentric than younger children as they learn to take the perspectives of others.

adolescents may have difficulty distinguishing their thinking about their own thoughts from their thinking about the thoughts of others, resulting in a distinctive kind of adolescent egocentrism

infants, schemes are based on sensory and motor processes such as sucking and grasping

after infancy schemes become symbolic and representational, as words, ideas, and concepts.

(fMRI), have made possible a more advanced understanding of how the brain develops, because these technologies show how different parts of the brain function when performing a cognitive task

age 6 the brain is already 95% of its adult size.

The information-processing approach is a componential approach,

because it involves breaking down the thinking process into its various components

Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development

cognitive development of adolescents, Jean Piaget (pronounced pee-ah-jay),

intrigued by the kinds of wrong answers children would give. lso gave similar kinds of wrong answers

concluded that age differences in patterns of wrong answers reflected differences in how children of various ages thought about the questions.

Abstract is often contrasted with concrete, which refers to things you can experience through the senses.

concrete operations can apply logic only to things they can experience directly, concretely,

connections or synapses between the neurons (brain cells)

considerable thickening of synaptic connections occurs around the time puberty begins, ages 10-12, a process neuroscientists call overproduction or exuberance

Piaget termed the first 2 years of life the sensorimotor stage

coordinate the activities of the senses motor activites

After age 40, white matter declines rapidly, and performance on tasks that require rapid brain functioning declines accordingly

crucial new connections created between a part of the frontal lobe called the prefrontal cortex

Culture and Formal Operations

cultures formal operational thought (as measured with Piagetian tasks) does not appear to develop in most people, and this is particularly true in cultures that do not have formal schooling

Research by Basseches on the development of postformal thinking has found that emerging adults develop an awareness that problems often have no clear solution and that two opposing points of view may each have merit, which is called _____________.

dialectical thought

Research on Perry's theory of reflective judgment has found that although significant gains are made in emerging adulthood, these gains tend to be more as a result of _________ than of maturation.

educational resources

massive amount of synaptic pruning takes place, in which the overproduction of synapses is whittled down considerably.

f 12 and 20 the average brain loses 7% to 10% of its gray matter through synaptic pruning -fMRI methods shows that synaptic pruning is especially rapid among adolescents with high intelligence (

______ intelligence refers to mental abilities that involve speed of analyzing, processing, and reacting to information, and this type of intelligence tends to _______ in emerging adulthood.

fluid, peak

third, there are both gains and losses in the course of brain development in adolescence and emerging adulthood.

for the most part the neurological changes of adolescence and emerging adulthood increase cognitive abilities substantially.

Keating and others stress that critical-thinking skills do not develop automatically or inevitably in adolescence-

gaining specific knowledge and learning critical-thinking skills are complementary goals.

brain content between gray matter, which is composed of brain cells, and white matter, which consists of myelinated axons

gray matter decreases and white matter increases through the 20s and into the 30s,

erebellum is part of the lower brain, well beneath the cortex, and has been long thought to be involved only in basic functions such as movement.

higher functions as well, such as mathematics, music, decision making, and even social skills and understanding humor. It also turns out that the cerebellum continues to grow through adolescence and well into emerging adulthood, last structure to stop growing

Cultural Focus box

indicate that Piaget's ideas about cognitive development in adolescence can be applied to non-Western cultures as long as they are adapted to the ways of life of each cultur

The personal fable

is built on the imaginary audience -how you look and act leads to the belief that there must be something special, something unique, about you -adverse consequences from behavior such as unprotected sex and drunk driving "won't happen to me -

Theory of mind

is the ability to attribute mental states to one's self and others, including beliefs, thoughts, and feelings (Kuhn, 2000)

Reflective judgment

is the capacity to evaluate the accuracy and logical coherence of evidence and arguments.

. Social cognition

is the term for the way we think about other people, social relationships, and social institutions

pendulum problem (Inhelder & Piaget, 1958).

it's the length of the string—they find it difficult to explain why. This is crucial, for Piaget; cognitive advances at each stage are reflected not just in the solutions children devise for problems but in their explanations for how they arrived at the solution.

perspective taking have found it plays an important role in adolescents' peer relationship

making new friends, -prosocial behavior, meaning behavior that is kind and considerate -exican American adolescents found that the cultural value of family closeness enhanced adolescents' perspective-taking abilities, which in turn promoted their prosocial behavior -

f cognitive stages means that each person's cognitive abilities are organized into a coherent mental structure;

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

Adolescent Thinking: More Abstract and More Complex

number of other aspects of formal operations focus less on scientific thinking and more on logical or applied reasoning

selective attention is also a key part of problem solving;

one of the initial steps of solving any problem is to decide where to direct your attention.

Howard Gardner. Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences includes nine types of intelligence

only two of them, linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligences, are evaluated by intelligence tests. The other intelligences are spatial (the ability to think three-dimensionally); -musical; existential (sensitivity to deep questions about human existence); -bodily kinesthetic (the kind that athletes and dancers excel in); -naturalist (ability for understanding natural phenomena); i -interpersonal (ability for understanding and interacting with others); and - intrapersonal (self-understanding).

Cognitive development in adolescence functions as an

organizational core that affects all areas of thinking: no matter what the topic

Research by Labouvie-Vief on postformal thinking has found that emerging adulthood brings about an awareness of how social and situational factors must be taken into account when problem solving in real life, which is called __________. adapting logical thinking to the practical constraints of real-life situations.

pragmatism

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

pragmatism and reflective judgment.

adolescents ages 15 and younger whose decision-making competence is impaired by psychosocial immaturity

process of making decisions is rarely based purely on reason and is often inaccurate because of reasoning errors or the influence of social and emotional factors

Overproduction of synaptic connections occurs in many parts of the brain's gray matter, its outer layer, but is especially concentrated in the frontal lobes, the part of the brain that is right behind your forehead

rontal lobes are involved in most of the higher functions of the brain, such as planning ahead, solving problems, and making moral judgments.

end of their college years,

stage of commitment in which they commit themselves to certain points of view they believe to be the most valid,

Adolescents are more likely than preadolescent children to use -- -mnemonic devices-- (memory strategies), such as organizing information into coherent patterns

such as writing a chapter outline, taking notes, organizing information into categories

Peng and Nisbett

the European American approach tends to apply logic in a way that polarizes contradictory perspectives in an effort to determine which is correct.

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.

theorists such as the behaviorists, who saw the environment as acting on the child through rewards and punishments rather than seeing the child as an active agen

The information-processing approach

to understanding cognitive development in adolescence is quite different from the cognitive-developmental approach

multiple thinking

value all points of view equally

active construction of reality takes place through the use of-- schemes

which are structures for organizing and interpreting information

critical thinking

which is thinking that involves not merely memorizing information but analyzing it, making judgments about what it means, relating it to other information, and considering how it might be valid or invalid.

information-processing theorists and researchers are guilty of reductionism

which means breaking up a phenomenon into separate parts to such an extent that the meaning and coherence of the phenomenon as a whole become lost

you will read things that sound familiar to you from your own experience or previous reading, so that you can easily-- assimilate --them to what you already know.

will be contrary to the schemes you have developed and will require you to use-- accommodation --to expand your knowledge

divided attention

—reading a book and listening to music at the same time—but even for adolescents, divided attention may result in less efficient learning than if attention were focused entirely on one thing

selective attention

—the ability to focus on relevant information while screening out information that is irrelevant -Adolescents tend to be better than preadolescent children at tasks that require selective attention