6.2 physical and cognitive development in adolescence II

Formal operations

Piagets final cognitive stage, ability to engage in abstract thinking and hypothetic

Pendulum problem

students given strings of difference lengths and objects of different weights and told to discover what influences the speed with which a pendulum swings

4 logical hypothesis of the pendulum problem

length of then string (mad biggest diff) , weight of the object, how high the object is raised, how forcefully its pushed

hypothetico deductive reasoning

systematically of through each of the hypothesis while holding all others constant so they can observe the causes of each single variable, only a few achieve this level

Overproduction followed by pruning

happens early puberty (11 or 12) overproduction of neural connections is concentrated in the frontal lobe of the brain

Myelinated

myelin fatty sheath covers neurons and speeds up conduction of messages. Occurs end of infancy and completes at end of adolescence (increasing cognitive processing)

Shift from using Limbic system for judgement to

frontal lobe before has difficulty with impulse control and emotional regulation. Full development

by about age 30