Adolescence – The Brain and Cognitive Development

The Brain

• The Neuroconstructivist View:

  • The brain has plasticity and its development depends on context.

  • Experiences determine how connections are made in the brain.

  • Biological processes and environmental experiences influence the brain’s development.

  • Brain development is linked closely with cognitive development.

• Neurons:

  • Neurons are the nervous system’s basic units.

  • A neuron has three basic parts:

    • The cell body.

    • Dendrites—the receiving parts of the neuron.

    • The axon—which carries information away from the cell body to other cells.

  • Myelination:

    • The axon portion of a neuron becomes covered and insulated with a layer of fat cells (myelin sheath).

    • Increases the speed and efficiency of information processing in the nervous system.

    • Continues during adolescence and emerging adulthood.

  • White Matter vs. Gray Matter:

    • White matter: myelinated axons, whitish in color.

    • Gray matter: dendrites and the cell body of the neuron.

    • Adolescence sees an increase in white matter and a decrease in gray matter in the prefrontal cortex.

    • Increases in white matter across adolescence is due to increased myelination and an increase in the diameter of axons.

  • Synaptogenesis:

    • Dramatic increase in connections between neurons.

    • Synapses: gaps between neurons where connections between the axon and dendrites take place.

    • Synaptogenesis begins in infancy and continues through adolescence.

    • Nearly twice as many synaptic connections are made as will ever be used.

    • Connections that are used are strengthened and survive, while unused connections are replaced by other pathways or disappear (“pruned”).

  • Neurotransmitters:

    • Chemicals that carry information across synaptic gaps between neurons change with puberty.

    • An increase in the neurotransmitter dopamine occurs in both the prefrontal cortex and the limbic system during adolescence.

    • Increases in dopamine have been linked to increased risk-taking and the use of addictive drugs.

    • Dopamine plays an important role in reward seeking.

• Brain Structure, Cognition, and Emotion:

  • Neurons in the brain are connected in precise ways to form the various structures in the brain, from the bottom up.

  • Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), scientists have discovered adolescents’ brains undergo significant structural changes.

  • An fMRI creates a magnetic field around a person’s body and bombards the brain with radio waves, resulting in a computerized image of the brain’s tissues and biochemical activities.

  • Important structural changes occur in the:

    • Corpus callosum.

    • Prefrontal cortex.

    • Limbic system.

    • Amygdala.

  • The limbic system matures much earlier and is almost completely developed by early adolescence.

  • Dopamine activity is greater in the limbic system pathways in early adolescence than at any other point in development.

  • Preference for immediate rewards increased from 14 to 16 years of age and then declined.

  • The increase in risk-taking in adolescents can result in negative outcomes, but also benefits adolescents, such as being open to new experiences.

  • In middle and late childhood, there is increased focal activation within a specific brain region but limited connections across distant brain regions; connections increase by emerging adulthood.

  • Environmental experiences make important contributions to the brain’s development.

  • Biology doesn’t make teens rebellious or have purple hair or take drugs, but it gives you more of a chance to do that.

  • In 2005, giving the death penalty to adolescents (under the age of 18) was prohibited by the U.S. Supreme Court, but the topic continues to be debated.

• Experience and Plasticity:

  • Researchers have documented neurogenesis in only two brain regions: the hippocampus and the olfactory bulb.

  • Researchers are studying factors that might inhibit and promote neurogenesis, including drugs, stress, and exercise.

  • In childhood and adolescence, the brain has a remarkable ability to repair itself.

  • The brain retains considerable plasticity in adolescence, and the earlier a brain injury occurs, the greater the likelihood of a successful recovery.

  • Statements about the implications of brain science for secondary education are often speculative and far removed from what neuroscientists know about the brain.

  • Recent research supports the view that education can considerably benefit adolescents in several areas of higher- level cognitive functioning.

The Cognitive Developmental View

• Piaget’s Theory:

  • Piaget’s is the best-known, most widely discussed theory of adolescent cognitive development.

  • Adolescents are motivated to understand their world because doing so is biologically adaptive.

  • To make sense of the world, adolescents organize their experiences and adapt their thinking to include new ideas.

• Cognitive Processes:

  • Schema: a mental concept or framework that is useful in organizing and interpreting information.

  • Assimilation: the incorporation of new information into existing knowledge.

  • Accommodation: the adjustment of a schema in response to new information.

  • Equilibration: a shift in thought from one state to another.

• Stages of Cognitive Development:

  • Individuals develop through four cognitive stages:

    • Sensorimotor.

    • Preoperational.

    • Concrete operational.

    • Formal operational.

  • Each stage consists of distinct ways of thinking, one more advanced than the last.

  • The formal operational stage is Piaget’s fourth and final stage of cognitive development, emerging at 11–15 years of age.

  • Formal operational thought is more abstract than concrete operational thought.

  • Adolescents can conjure up, make-believe situations—events that are purely hypothetical possibilities or strictly abstract propositions—and try to reason logically about them.

  • Another indication of the abstract quality of adolescents’ thought is their increased tendency to think about thought itself (metacognition).

  • Formal operational thought is full of idealism and possibilities.

  • Adolescents begin to reason more as a scientist does, devising ways to solve problems and test solutions systematically.

  • Hypothetical-deductive reasoning: the ability to develop hypotheses, or best guesses, about how to solve problems.

  • Not all adolescents are full-fledged formal operational thinkers, however.

  • Subperiods of Formal Operational Thought:

    • Early formal operational thought: a newfound ability to think in hypothetical ways produces unconstrained thoughts; the world is perceived too subjectively and idealistically; assimilation is the dominant process.

    • Late formal operational thought: as adolescents test their reasoning against experience, intellectual balance is restored; through accommodation, adolescents adjust to upheaval.

    • Many college students and adults do not think in formal operational ways, either.

• Evaluating Piaget’s Theory:

  • Contributions:

    • We owe to Piaget the present field of cognitive development, as well as the current vision of children as active, constructive thinkers.

    • Piaget was a genius when it came to observing children.

    • We also owe to Piaget the current belief that a concept does not emerge suddenly, full blown, but develops through a series of partial accomplishments that lead to an increasingly comprehensive understanding.

  • Criticisms:

    • Some cognitive abilities have been found to emerge earlier than Piaget had thought; others often emerge later.

    • Cognitive development is not as stage-like as Piaget thought.

    • Neo-Piagetians: Piaget’s theory does not adequately focus on attention, memory, and cognitive strategies that adolescents use to process information, and explanations are too general.

    • Robbie Case: A more precise description of changes within each stage is needed—the increasing ability to hold information efficiently is linked to brain growth and memory development.

    • Culture and education exert stronger influences than Piaget envisioned.

• Cognitive Changes in Adulthood:

  • Realistic and pragmatic thinking:

    • As emerging adults face the constraints of reality, their idealism decreases.

  • Reflective and relativistic thinking:

    • Young adults move away from absolutist thinking as they become aware of diverse opinions and multiple perspectives.

  • Cognition and emotion:

    • Young adults become more aware that emotions influence their thinking; thinking is often swayed by negative emotions.

    • Young adults high in empathy, flexibility, and autonomy more likely to engage in integrated cognitive-emotional thinking.

• Postformal Thought:

  • Postformal thought is:

    • Reflective, relativistic, and contextual.

    • Provisional.

    • Realistic.

    • Recognized as being influenced by emotion.

  • Critics argue that research has yet to document that postformal thought is a qualitatively more advanced stage than formal operational thought.

• Wisdom:

  • Paul Baltes and colleagues: Wisdom is expert knowledge about the practical aspects of life that permits excellent judgment about important matters.

    • High levels of wisdom are rare.

    • The time frame of late adolescence, emerging adulthood, and early adulthood is the main age window for wisdom to emerge.

    • Factors other than age are critical for wisdom to develop to a high level.

    • Personality-related factors, such as openness to experience and creativity, are better predictors of wisdom than cognitive factors such as intelligence.

  • Robert J. Sternberg: Wisdom consists of using one’s intelligence, creativity, common sense, and knowledge in a balanced, ethical manner; individuals should apply wisdom in a balanced way across intrapersonal, interpersonal, and extra-personal contexts for the common good.

    • Individuals need to apply practical knowledge in dealing with problems.

    • Metacognitive thinking with a moral grounding is a critical factor.

• Vygotsky’s Theory:

  • Lev Vygotsky’s theory views knowledge as situated and collaborative.

  • Knowing can best be advanced through interaction with others in cooperative activities.

  • One of his most important concepts: the zone of proximal development (ZPD).

  • Formal schooling, parents, peers, community, and culture’s technological orientation influence adolescents’ thinking.

  • Vygotsky’s theory has not yet been evaluated as thoroughly as Piaget’s theory, even though the two theories were proposed at about the same time.

  • Vygotsky’s view of the importance of sociocultural influences on children’s development fits with the current belief that it is important to evaluate the contextual factors in learning.

  • Vygotsky’s theory is a social constructivist approach.

  • That is, it emphasizes the social contexts of learning and the construction of knowledge through social interaction.

  • The end point of cognitive development can differ, depending on culture.

  • Children and adolescents construct knowledge through social interaction.

  • One implication for teaching is that students need many opportunities to learn with the teacher and more-skilled peers.

  • Criticisms:

    • Not specific enough about age-related changes.

    • Not adequate in describing how changes in socioemotional capabilities contribute to cognitive development.

    • Overemphasis on the role of language in thinking.

    • The emphasis on collaboration and guidance has potential pitfalls.

The Information-Processing View

• Information processing includes how information gets into adolescents’ minds, how it is stored, and how adolescents retrieve information to think about and solve problems.

• It is a framework for thinking about adolescent development, including ideas about how adolescents’ minds work and how best to study those workings.

• It is also a facet of development—in that information processing changes as children make the transition from adolescence to adulthood.

• Cognitive Resources:

  • Information processing is influenced by both the capacity and speed of processing—cognitive resources.

  • Most information-processing psychologists argue that an increase in capacity improves processing of information.

  • There is abundant evidence that the speed with which tasks are completed improves dramatically across the childhood and adolescent years.

• Attention:

  • Attention: concentration and focusing of mental effort.

    • Selective attention: focusing on a specific aspect of experience while ignoring others.

    • Divided attention: concentrating on more than one activity at the same time.

    • Sustained attention: maintaining attention to a selected stimulus for a prolonged period.

    • Executive attention: planning actions, allocating attention to goals, detecting and compensating for errors, monitoring progress on tasks, and dealing with novel or difficult circumstances.

  • One trend involving divided attention is adolescents’ multitasking.

  • If a key task is at all complex and challenging, multitasking significantly reduces attention to the key task.

  • An increase in executive attention supports the rapid increase in effortful control to effectively engage in complex academic tasks.

  • As with any cognitive process, there are wide individual differences in how effectively adolescents use these different types of attention in their everyday lives.

• Memory:

  • Memory—the retention of information over time—is central to mental life and to information processing.

    • Short-term memory:

      • A limited-capacity system in which information is retained for as long as 30 seconds unless the information is rehearsed, in which case it can be retained longer.

      • Researchers have found that short-term memory increases extensively in early childhood and continues to increase in older children and adolescents but at a slower pace.

    • Working memory:

      • A kind of mental “workbench” where individuals manipulate and assemble information when they make decisions, solve problems, and comprehend written and spoken language.

      • The adolescent and emerging adult years are likely to be an important developmental period for improvement in working memory.

      • A recent study found that the prefrontal cortex plays a more important role in working memory in late adolescence than early adolescence.

      • It is a cognitive filter, allowing individuals to hold information in their minds so they can consider potential consequences.

    • Long-term memory:

      • A relatively permanent memory system that holds huge amounts of information for a long period of time.

      • Long-term memory increases substantially in the middle and late childhood years.

      • Improvement likely continues during adolescence, although this has not been well documented by researchers.

      • Long-term memory depends on the learning activities engaged in when an individual is learning and remembering information.

  • Memory of significant events and experiences is called autobiographical memory.

  • Autobiographical narratives broaden and become more elaborated through adolescence and emerging adulthood.

• Executive Function:

  • Executive function: an umbrella-like concept that involves higher-order, complex cognitive processes

    • Exercising cognitive control.

    • Making decisions.

    • Reasoning.

    • Thinking critically.

    • Thinking creatively.

    • Metacognition.

  • Two categories of executive function are hot executive function and cool executive function.

• Cognitive Control:

  • Cognitive control involves effective control and flexible thinking in several areas, including directing attention, reducing interfering thoughts, and being cognitively flexible; also called inhibitory control or effortful control.

  • Across childhood and adolescence, cognitive control increases with age.

  • This increase is thought to be due to the maturation of brain pathways and circuitry.

  • Controlling attention is a key aspect of learning and thinking in adolescence and emerging adulthood.

  • Cognitive flexibility involves being aware that options and alternatives are available and adapting to the situation.

  • An aspect of self-efficacy, confidence in one’s ability to adapt thinking to a particular situation is also important.

• Decision Making:

  • Adolescence is a time of increased decision making.

  • In some reviews, older adolescents are described as more competent at decision making than younger adolescents, who in turn are more competent than children.

  • However, older adolescents’ decision-making skills are far from perfect—but adults are also not perfect in making decisions.

  • Being able to make competent decisions does not guarantee that individuals will make them in everyday life, where breadth of experience often comes into play.

  • Most people make better decisions when they are calm rather than emotionally aroused, which may especially be true for adolescents.

  • The social context plays a key role in adolescent decision making.

  • Recent research reveals that the presence of peers in risk- taking situations increases the likelihood that adolescents will make risky decisions.

  • Adolescents need more opportunities to practice and discuss realistic decision making.

  • Fuzzy-Trace Theory Dual-Process Model:

    • Decision making is influenced by two cognitive systems—verbatim analytical thinking (literal and precise) and gist-based intuition (simple, bottom-line meaning)—that operate in parallel.

    • The model emphasizes that it is the gist-based intuition that benefits adolescents’ decision making most.

• Critical Thinking:

  • Critical thinking: thinking reflectively and productively and evaluating evidence.

  • Mindfulness—being alert, mentally present, and cognitively flexible while going through life’s everyday activities and tasks—is an important aspect of thinking critically.

  • Mindfulness-based interventions have positive effects on many physical and mental health outcomes in adolescence.

  • Contemplative science studies how mindfulness training, yoga, meditation, and tai chi might enhance adolescents’ development.

  • Cognitive changes that facilitate improvement of critical thinking skills:

    • Increased speed, automaticity, and capacity of information processing.

    • Greater breadth of content knowledge in a variety of domains.

    • Increased ability to construct new combinations of knowledge.

    • A greater range and more spontaneous use of strategies and procedures for obtaining and applying knowledge.

  • If a solid basis of fundamental skills was not developed during childhood, critical-thinking skills are unlikely to adequately develop in adolescence.

  • Adolescents need these skills:

    • Recognizing problems exist and defining problems clearly.

    • Handling problems that have no single right answer or clear criteria for determining the point at which the problem will be solved.

    • Making decisions on issues of personal relevance.

    • Obtaining information.

    • Thinking in groups.

    • Developing long-term approaches to long-term problems.

  • Teachers can stimulate critical thinking by using assignments that require focusing on an issue, question, or problem.

• Creative Thinking:

  • Creativity: the ability to think in novel ways and discover unique solutions to problems

    • Convergent thinking produces one correct answer and is characteristic of the kind of thinking required on a conventional intelligence test.

    • Divergent thinking produces many answers to the same question and is more characteristic of creativity.

  • Although most creative adolescents are quite intelligent, the reverse is not necessarily true.

  • A special concern is that adolescents’ creative thinking appears to be declining.

  • Have adolescents engage in brainstorming.

  • Introduce adolescents to environments that stimulate creativity.

  • Don’t overcontrol.

  • Build adolescents’ confidence.

  • Encourage internal motivation.

  • Guide adolescents to be persistent and to delay gratification.

  • Encourage adolescents to take intellectual risks.

  • Introduce adolescents to creative people.

• Expertise:

  • Experts are better than novices at:

    • Detecting features and meaningful patterns of information.

    • Accumulating more content knowledge and organizing it in a manner that shows an understanding of the topic.

    • Retrieving important aspects of knowledge with little effort.

  • Deliberate practice involves practice that is at an appropriate level of difficulty for the individual, provides corrective feedback, and allows opportunities for repetition.

  • Such extensive practice requires considerable motivation.

  • Talent is also usually required, but talent alone does not make someone an expert.

• Metacognition:

  • Metacognition: cognition about cognition, or “knowing about knowing.”

  • Metacognition is increasingly recognized as a very important cognitive skill not only in adolescence but also in emerging adulthood.

  • Compared to children, adolescents have an increased capacity to monitor and manage cognitive resources to effectively meet the demands of a learning task.

  • This increased metacognitive ability results in improved cognitive functioning and learning.

  • Theory of mind: awareness of one’s own mental processes and the mental processes of others.

  • Strategy Instruction:

    • The key to education is helping students learn a rich repertoire of strategies that produce solutions to problems.

    • Strategy instruction in elementary and secondary school classrooms is far less complete and intense than what students need in order to learn how to use strategies effectively.

• Domain-Specific Thinking Skills:

  • In addition to metacognitive skills, it is also very important to teach domain-specific thinking skills to adolescents.

  • A rich tradition in quality education programs has been the teaching of thinking skills within specific subjects, such as writing, mathematics, science, and history.

  • Planning is an important general cognitive skill for adolescents and emerging adults to use, but they also benefit when they apply this and other cognitive skills to specific subjects.

The Psychometric/Intelligence View

• The psychometric/intelligence view emphasizes the importance of individual differences in intelligence.

• Many advocates of this view favor the use of intelligence tests.

• An increasing issue in the field of intelligence involves pinning down what the components of intelligence really are.

• Intelligence: the ability to solve problems and to adapt and learn from everyday experiences.

• Sternberg proposes that practical know-how also be considered part of intelligence.

• The Binet Tests:

  • In 1904, the French Ministry of Education asked psychologist Alfred Binet to devise a method of identifying children who were unable to learn in school.

  • In 1905, Binet developed an intelligence test to meet this request.

  • It consisted of 30 questions on topics ranging from the ability to touch one’s ear to the ability to draw designs from memory and define abstract concepts.

  • Binet developed the concept of mental age (MA): an individual’s level of mental development relative to others.

  • In 1912, William Stern created the concept of intelligence quotient (IQ): a person’s mental age divided by chronological age (CA), multiplied by 100.

IQ = (MA/CA) * 100

*   The Binet test has been revised many times.
*   These revisions are called the Stanford–Binet tests (Stanford University is where the revisions have been done).

• The Wechsler Scales:

  • Developed by David Wechsler.

    • Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—Fourth Edition (WAIS-IV).

    • Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children—Fourth Edition (WISC-IV) for children and adolescents 6–16 years of age.

    • Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence—Fourth Edition (WPPSI-IV) to test children from age 2 years 6 months to 7 years 7 months.

  • The Wechsler scales provide an overall IQ and several additional composite scores.

• Using Intelligence Tests:

  • Psychological tests are tools. Like all tools, their effectiveness depends on the knowledge, skill, and integrity of the user.

  • Cautions to avoid the pitfalls of using information about an adolescent’s intelligence in negative ways:

    • Avoid stereotyping and expectations.

    • Know that IQ is not a sole indicator of competence.

• Multiple Intelligences:

  • Robert Sternberg and Howard Gardner have proposed influential theories that describe specific types of intelligence.

• Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory:

  • Robert J. Sternberg developed the triarchic theory of intelligence:

    • Analytical intelligence: the ability to analyze, judge, evaluate, compare, and contrast.

    • Creative intelligence: the ability to create, design, invent, originate, and imagine.

    • Practical intelligence: the ability to use, apply, implement, and put ideas into practice.

  • Sternberg argues that wisdom should be considered as a fourth domain.

  • Students with different triarchic patterns perform differently in school.

• Gardner’s Eight Frames of Mind:

  • Howard Gardner has proposed eight types of intelligence, or “frames of mind”:

    • Verbal.

    • Mathematical.

    • Spatial.

    • Bodily-kinesthetic.

    • Musical.

    • Interpersonal.

    • Intrapersonal.

    • Naturalist.

  • According to Gardner, everyone has all these intelligences, but to varying degrees.

  • As a result, we prefer to learn and process information in different ways.

  • People learn best when they can apply their strong intelligences to the task.

• Emotional Intelligence:

  • Ability to perceive and express emotion accurately and adaptively.

  • Ability to understand emotion and emotional knowledge.

  • Ability to use feelings to facilitate thought.

  • Ability to manage emotions in oneself and others.

• Theories of multiple intelligences have stimulated us to think more broadly about what makes up people’s intelligence and competence.

• Have motivated educators to develop programs that instruct students in different domains.

• Some critics argue that the research base to support these theories has not yet developed.

• Several psychologists still support the concept of g (general intelligence).

• Some experts who argue for general intelligence conclude that individuals also have specific intellectual abilities.

• The Neuroscience of Intelligence:

  • Studies have shown a moderate correlation between brain size and higher intelligence.

  • Studies show that a distributed neural network involving the frontal and parietal lobes is related to higher intelligence.

  • The region of Einstein’s parietal lobe active in processing math and spatial information was 15% larger than average.

  • Studies seeking correlation between neurological speed and intelligence have shown inconsistent results.

• Heredity and Environment:

  • Researchers have found that the IQs of identical twins are more similar than those of fraternal twins, but in some studies the difference is not very large.

  • IQ scores increase when children are adopted from low income to middle- and upper-income families.

  • The IQ gap between African Americans and non-Latinx whites has diminished considerably in recent years; the ethnic intelligence gap is influenced by racism and discrimination.

  • Stereotype threat: anxiety that one’s behavior might confirm a negative stereotype about one’s group.

  • Schooling influences intelligence, with the largest effects occurring when adolescents have had no formal education for an extended period, which is linked to lower intelligence.

  • Because the increase has taken place in a relatively short period of time, it can’t be due to heredity, but rather may be due to increasing levels of education attained by a much greater percentage of the world’s population—or to other environmental factors.

  • Today, most researchers agree that genetics and environment interact to influence intelligence.

  • For many adolescents, this means that positive modifications in environment can change their IQ scores.

Social Cognition

• Social cognition: the way individuals conceptualize and reason about their social worlds.

• The people they watch and interact with, their relationships with those people, the groups they participate in, and the way they reason about themselves and others.

• Adolescent Egocentrism:

  • Adolescent egocentrism: the heightened self- consciousness of adolescents, which is reflected in their belief that others are as interested in them as they are themselves, and in their sense of personal uniqueness and invulnerability.

  • David Elkind: Adolescent egocentrism can be dissected into two types of social thinking:

    • Imaginary audience, which involves attention-getting behavior.

    • Personal fable, which involves the sense of personal uniqueness and invulnerability.

  • Elkind argued the imaginary audience and personal fable reflect the cognitive egocentrism involved in the transition to formal operational thought.

  • Daniel Lapsley and colleagues conclude that the distortions in the imaginary audience and personal fable involve the adolescent’s ego.

  • The sense of uniqueness and invincibility that egocentrism generates is responsible for reckless behavior of adolescents.

  • Personal uniqueness fables should be treated as a risk factor for psychological problems.

  • In early research, Elkind found adolescent egocentrism peaked in early adolescence, then declined.

  • However, a recent study of more than 2,300 adolescents and emerging adults from 11 to 21 years of age revealed that adolescent egocentrism was still prominent in the 18- to 21- year-olds (emerging adults) and the results varied by gender.

Language Development

• With increasing ability to engage in abstract thinking, adolescents are better at analyzing the role a word plays in a sentence.

• Adolescents make strides in understanding metaphor: an implied comparison between unlike things.

• Adolescents are better able to understand and apply satire: the use of irony, derision, or wit to expose folly or wickedness.

• Everyday speech changes during adolescence.

• Young adolescents often speak with peers in a dialect: a variety of language that is distinguished by its vocabulary, grammar, or pronunciation.

• Bilingualism:

  • Research suggests sensitive periods in the ability to learn a second language vary across language systems.

  • Adolescents and adults learn a second language faster than children, but their level of attainment is not as high.

  • Research suggests more positive cognitive outcomes for bilingual children and adolescents, but other studies have not found this link.

• Writing:

  • Adolescents are better than children at:

    • Organizing ideas before writing.

    • Distinguishing between general and specific points.

    • Stringing together sentences that make sense.

    • Organizing their writing into an introduction, body, and concluding remarks.

  • The metacognitive skills involved in being a competent writer are linked to those of being a competent reader.

  • There are increasing concerns about students’ lack of writing competence.

Here are the answers to your questions, with each question named:

1. Describe the anatomy of the neuron and the ways that neurons communicate with each other.
A neuron consists of a cell body, dendrites (receiving parts), and an axon (transmits information). Communication occurs through synapses, where neurotransmitters carry information across gaps between neurons.

2. List and describe the three most significant structural changes in the brain during adolescence and how they change.

• Corpus Callosum:Connects the brain's two hemispheres and is responsible for relaying motor, sensory, and cognitive information

• Prefrontal Cortex: Involved in reasoning, decision-making, and self-control. There is an increase in white matter and a decrease in gray matter.

• Limbic System: Matures earlier, with greater dopamine activity in early adolescence. Important structural changes occur in the amygdala which processes emotion

3. What are the main findings of research related to the roles of age and brain plasticity?
The brain retains considerable plasticity in adolescence, with earlier injuries leading to greater recovery. Research also indicated that education can considerably benefit adolescents in several areas of higher level cognitive functioning.

4. Compare and contrast Piaget's concepts of assimilation and accommodation.
Assimilation is incorporating new information into existing knowledge (schema). Accommodation is adjusting the schema in response to new information.

5. How does adolescent thinking change in Piaget's stage of formal operational thought?
Adolescents develop abstract thought, idealism, hypothetical-deductive reasoning, and metacognition.

6. What did William Perry and Gisela Labouvie-Vief describe as changes in thinking that occur in early adulthood?
Young adults face constraints of reality, decreasing idealism; move away from absolutist thinking, becoming aware of diverse opinions; and recognize the influence of emotions on their thinking.

7. What are the characteristics of the stage of post-formal thought?
Reflective, relativistic, contextual, provisional, realistic, and influenced by emotion; qualitatively more advanced.

8. Define the term wisdom and describe how wisdom develops over the life cycle.
Wisdom involves expert knowledge about practical life aspects, emerges in late adolescence/ early adulthood, and depends on factors like personality and openness to experience.

9. Describe Lev Vygotsky's social constructivist approach to learning.
Knowledge is situated and collaborative. Learning is advanced through interaction and cooperative activities, emphasizing the zone of proximal development.

10. Compare and contrast Piaget's and Vygotsky's views on adolescent cognitive development.
Piaget focused on stages and individual construction of knowledge. Vygotsky emphasized social contexts and collaboration in learning.

11. Explain how adolescents differ from children in managing cognitive resources.
Adolescents have increased capacity to monitor and manage cognitive resources effectively.

12. Define the term attention and describe the four types of attention.
Attention is the concentration and focusing of mental effort.
Four types:
*Selective attention: focusing on a specific aspect of experience while ignoring others.
*Divided attention: concentrating on more than one activity at the same time.
*Sustained attention: maintaining attention to a selected stimulus for a prolonged period.
*Executive attention: planning actions, allocating attention to goals.

13. Define the term, describe the three types of memory, and tell how they change in adolescents.
Memory is the retention of information over time. Three types:
Short-term memory: A limited-capacity system in which information is retained for as long as 30 seconds
Working memory: A kind of mental “workbench” where individuals manipulate and assemble information when they make decisions
Long-term memory: A relatively permanent memory system that holds huge amounts of information for a long period of time.

14. Compare and contrast the decision-making abilities of children, younger adolescents, and older adolescents.
Older adolescents are more competent than younger ones, who are more competent than children, but decision-making skills are not perfect.

15. List at least three behavioral, cognitive, or psychosocial factors involved in making good decisions.
Behavioral, cognitive, or psychosocial factors in making good decisions.

16. List at least three cognitive changes that allow for improved critical thinking in adolescence.
Increased speed and capacity of information processing, greater knowledge, and increased ability to construct new combinations of knowledge.

17. Compare and contrast convergent and divergent thinking.
Convergent thinking generates one correct answer. Divergent thinking produces many answers.

18. Name three strategies you recommend to teachers who wish to increase creativity among adolescent students.
Have adolescents engage in brainstorming. Introduce adolescents to environments that stimulate creativity. Don’t overcontrol.

19. Distinguish the characteristics of an expert from those of a novice.
Experts detect features and meaningful patterns, accumulate more content knowledge, and retrieve knowledge efficiently.

20. Judge the value of intelligence tests.
Psychological tests are tools effectiveness depends psychological tests are tools effectiveness.

21. What similarities and differences exist between Robert Sternberg's triarchic theory of intelligence and Howard Gardner's eight frames of mind theory?
Robert Sternberg triarchic theory includes analytical, creative, and practical intelligence. Howard Gardner has proposed eight frames of mind verbal, mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal and naturalist.

22. Concepts:

Short, working, and long-term memory:
short term memory- A limited-capacity system in which information is retained for as long as 30 seconds.
working memory- A kind of mental “workbench” where individuals manipulate and assemble information when they make decisions
long term memory- A relatively permanent memory system that holds huge amounts of information for a long period of time.
Speed of processing the information: is influenced by how the capacity the cognitive resource is assigned
Decision making: Adolescence is a time of increased decision making
Critical thinking (how to improve): Mindfulness—being alert, mentally present, and cognitively flexible while going through life’s everyday activities and tasks—is an important aspect of thinking critically.
Prefrontal cortex and its function: Reasoning, decision-making, and self-control
What is the role of dopamine, and what happens when it increases?: Dopamine plays an important role in reward seeking.
Corpus callosum: connects the brain's two hemispheres and is responsible for relaying motor, sensory, and cognitive information
Amygdala: plays a role in emotion
The difference in function between the amygdala and prefrontal cortex: prefrontal cortex is reasoning and decision making while amygdala deals with emotion
Brain plasticity: the brain has a remarkable ability to repair itself
Zpd: the zone of proximal development
Formal stage versus post-formal thought: formal operational thought is more abstract than concrete operational thought while post formal thought is reflective, relativistic, and contextual.
Cognitive changes in adolescents and adults (differences between them): adolescents shows the ability to conjure events that are purely hypothetical while adults move away from absolutist thinking as they become aware of diverse opinions and multiple perspectives.
The Role of Education in Plasticity: Research supports the view that education can considerably benefit adolescents in several areas of higher level cognitive functioning.
Difference between the formal operational stage and the concrete operational stage: formal operational stage is more abstract than the concrete operational stage, concrete operational can only reason logically about things that can be seen
Differences between the early formal operational stage and late formal operational stage: in the early formal operational stage assimilation is the dominant process while in the late formal operational stage adolescents adjust to upheaval.
David Elkind’s theory: adolescent egocentr