Adolescence Flashcards
(26 cards)
What is adolescence?
Cultural diferences in what age range is defined as adolescence
Generally encompasses puberty
Hypothalamus starts releasing GnRH to pituitary gland
This causes body changes, including production of sex hormones in reproductive organs
Puberty associated with changes in brain functioning
Synaptic density
0-2 years: synapses increase drastically
Experience=expectant = broad formation based on potential need
Synaptic pruning
Pruning refines neural connections
After 2 years, synapse growth continues, but is - Experience-dependent : meaning more specialised and localised according to experience
What influences pruning ?
Environmental factors:
Stress
Psychoactive drugs
Diet
Peer relationships
What does pruning do?
Plasticity: brain can change across development
- can cause some recover after brain dame
- age-sensitive
Myelination
Leads to quicker transmission of electrical signals between neurons
Sensory + motor areas reach full myelination in early childhood
Pre-frontal cortex continues until adolescence
Face recognition: Encoding switch hypothesis
Younger kids use featureless coding: rely on individual features (eyes, nose, mouth etc)
Adolescents use configurable coding: rely on spatial layout of features
Younger than 10yrs: more likely to be confused by transient features (hats, glasses)
10 yrs: more likely to be confused by inversion
Stability V Placticity
Controversy around how stable IQ is across lifespan —> IQ score is relative to age group
Deary et al. (2000): Re-analysis of 1932 Scottish Mental Survey
- IQ at 11 yrs correlates w/ IQ at 77 yrs old
Ramsden et al (2011): Longitudinal study
- 12-16 yrs, 15-20 yrs
- change related to grey matter change in area associated with speech or finger movements
Intelligence: Fluid intelligence
Ability to think + reason abstractly as measured by culture-free reasoning tasks
Increased over childhood + early adolescence, then decreases
Intelligence: Crystallised Intelligence
Info, skills and strategies acquired through education + prior experience
Increases over adolescence and stays stable until old age
Intelligence over generations
IQ’s are going up
Possible causes:
- enhanced nutrition
- improved health
- better quality education
- smaller family size
Reasoning
= drawing on conclusions based on info available to us
(Deductive, indicative, analogically)
Deductive reasoning:
Drawing on specific conclusions from general premises
Eg all cows can fly— Bertha is a cow— so bertha can fly
Inductive reasoning:
Drawing a general conclusion from specie premises
Eg bertha the cow can fly
Mabel the cow can fly
Bertha and Mabel live on Wean farm
So, all down on Wean farm can fly
Deductive and inductive reasoning developmental trajectories:
Kindergarten kids:
- no difference between deductive + inductive reasoning
7-13 yr olds:
- increasing difference (deductive = easier)
Analogical reasoning:
Comparing current problem to analogous one you have previously solved
Eg A is to B as C is to D
Complex analogical reasoning linked to creativity and scientific breakthrough
Reasoning: Piaget- Formal Opertaional stage
Sensorimotor (0-2 yrs):
- infant explored world through direct sensory + motor contact
- separation anxiety develops
Preoperational (2-6 yrs):
- child uses symbols to represent objects
- does not reason logically
- has ability to pretend
- egocentric
Concrete operational (7-12 yrs):
- child can think logically about concrete objects
- can add and subtract
- understands conversation
Formal operational (12 yrs- adult):
- can reason abstractly
- can think in hypothetical terms
- can use mental operations to infer info
- mental operations =reversible
Formal operational stage
Differences from COS
Formal operational (12 yrs- adult):
- can reason abstractly
- can think in hypothetical terms
- can use mental operations to infer info
-mental operations = reversible
Reasoning = abstract, general and content-free
This is why COS kids pass different types of conversation tasks at diferent time, but FOS adolescents can do them all equality easily
Reasoning extends beyond reality to imagines/ possible worlds
Adolescence as scientist:
- more than 1 theory
- confirmatory AND counter-evidence is considered
- wood-block balancing: concrete operational- sick to OG hypothesis even after seeing counter-evidence
Balance scale problem:
- only adolescents consider both weight and distance
Pendulum problem:
COS- tried diferent combinations at random
FOS- proposed multiple hypothesis, isolated factors and set about testing them systematically
Criticism of Piaget:
- little role of culture/ teaching:
- training is effective
- cultural differences: more emphasis on intuition over logic in East Asian cultures
- under estimation of children + infants abilities: 3 yr olds can preform deductive reasoning
- 12-month olds, pre-verbal can preform deductive reasoning
- analogical reasoning: also present in younger kids
- overestimation of kids’ abilities
- Epstein (1979) 32% of 15 yr olds and 34% of 18 yr olds showed use of formal operations
Beyond Piaget: Karmiloff-Smith
Intuitive scientist:
- adolcents form hypothesis and test using experiments
Similar to Piaget, but domain-specific
- individual may be able to solve formal ops in 1 domain but not in other
Not always supported by appropriate evidence
Intuitive scientists
When shown actual failing event, many kids + adults refused to admit mistakes
Explained discrepancy away:
- eg suggested ball was released later than experimenter indicated
Intuitive scientists
3 flaws of reasoning
- Failure to separate theory and evidnece
- fail to understand that theory needs evidnece
- poor understanding of what evidnece would support their theory - Conformation bias:
- select evidnece that confirms their theory rather than modifying theory to incorporate evidence - Need for alternative:
- need a plausible alternative theory in order to crept counter-evidence to their existing theory
Risk-taking behaviour
Adolescents more likely than children/ adults to act in risk way
Eg, accidents, drugs, violence, sexual risk-taking
Why does this increase between childhood-adolescence ?
- development of brain area associated with reward-seeking
-particularly in presence of peers
Why does it decease from adolescence to adulthood?
- development of brain areas associated with cognitive control
Presence of peers increases risk-tracking behaviour in adolcents but not adults.
This is because peer acceptance in aoldsnce activates reward circuits in Brian
Risk-taking behaviour: 3 key chnages
- Synaptic pruning In prefrontal areas
- during pre-adolescents and early adolescence - Myelination in prefrontal areas
- late adolescence and well into 20s - Increase in connection between prefrontal areas and areas associations with affective processing eg amygdala
These increases in cognitive control allow:
- inhibitor of reward-seeking behaviour
- inhibition of influence of peers
Risk taking: influencing factors
Birth order:
- long thought that first born children = less risk-taking —- not ture
- Self report
- Berlin-Basel Risk Study data
- Real-life risk-taking behaviour - explorers and revolutionaries
