Brain Development and Neuroconstructivism Part 1

● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● The development of the brain mainly changes in a bottom-up, top-down sequence with sensory, appetitive (eating, drinking), sexual, sensation-seeking, and risk-taking brain linkages maturing first and higher-level brain linkages such as self-control, planning, and reasoning maturing later In the increasingly popular neuroconstructivist view, (a) biological processes (genes, for example) and environmental experiences (enriched or impoverished, for example) influence the brain's development; (b) the brain has plasticity and is context dependent; and (c) development of the brain is linked closely with cognitive development. These factors constrain or advance the construction of cognitive skills The neuroconstructivist view emphasizes the importance of interactions between experiences and gene expression in the brain's development, much as the epigenetic view proposes Neurons, or nerve cells, are the nervous system's basic units. A neuron has three basic parts: the cell body, dendrites, and axon (see Figure 1). The dendrite is the receiving part of the neuron, and the axon carries information away from the cell body to other cells. white matter is used to describe the whitish color of myelinated axons, and the term gray matter refers primarily to dendrites and the cell body of the neuron Synapses are gaps between neurons, where connections between the axon and dendrites take place. Synaptogenesis begins in infancy and continues through adolescence. prefrontal cortex—the highest level of the frontal lobes that is involved in reasoning, decision ● ● ● ● making, and self-control limbic system, which is the seat of emotions and where rewards are experienced, matures much earlier than the prefrontal cortex and is almost completely developed by early adolescence The limbic system structure that is especially involved in emotion is the amygdala. n middle and late childhood, there is increased focal activation within a specific brain region, such as the prefrontal cortex, but only limited connections across distant brain regions. By the time individuals reach emerging adulthood, there is an increase in connections across brain areas although researchers have documented neurogenesis only in two brain regions: the hippocampus, which is involved in memory, and the olfactory bulb, which is involved in smell (Pallotto & Deprez, 2014; Seib & Martin-Villalba, 2015). It also is not known what functions these new brain cells perform, and at this point researchers have documented that they last only a few weeks (Nelson, 2006). Researchers currently are studying factors that might inhibit and promote neurogenesis, including various drugs, stress, and exercise (Gregoire & others, 2014). They also are examining how the grafting of neural stem cells to various regions of the brain, such as the hippocampus, might increase ● neurogenesis (Farioli-Vecchioli & others, 2014). Can the adolescent's brain recover from injury? In childhood and adolescence, the brain has a remarkable ability to repair itself (Nelson, 2013). We previously discussed Michael Rehbein, whose left hemisphere was removed because of brain seizures. The plasticity of the human brain was apparent as his right hemisphere reorganized itself to take over functions that normally take place in the left hemisphere, such as speech. The brain retains considerable plasticity in adolescence, and the earlier a brain injury occurs, the higher the likelihood of a successful recovery (Yen & Wong, 2007). ● What do we know about applying information about brain development to adolescents' education? Unfortunately, too often statements about the implications of brain science for secondary education are speculative and far removed from what neuroscientists know about the brain (Blakemore & Mills, 2014; Bradshaw & others, 2012; Fischer & Immordino- ● ● ● ● ● ● Yang, 2008). We don't have to look any further than the hype about “left-brained” individuals being more logical and “right-brained” individuals being more creative to see that links between neuroscience and brain education are incorrectly made. Piaget's theory is the best-known, most widely discussed theory of adolescent cognitive development. According to his theory, adolescents are motivated to understand their world because doing so is biologically adaptive. Adolescents actively construct their own cognitive worlds; information doesn't just pour into their minds from the environment. To make sense of the world, adolescents organize their experiences, separating important ideas from less important ones and connecting one idea to another. They also adapt their thinking to include new ideas because the additional information furthers their understanding. A schema is a mental concept or framework that is useful in organizing and interpreting information. Piaget was especially interested in how children and adolescents use schemas to organize and make sense out of their current experiences. Assimilation is the incorporation of new information into existing knowledge. In assimilation, the schema does not change. Accommodation is the adjustment of a schema in response to new information. In accommodation, the schema changes. Equilibration, another process Piaget identified, is a shift in thought from one state to another. At times adolescents experience cognitive conflict or a sense of disequilibrium in their attempt to understand the world. Eventually they resolve the conflict and reach a balance, or equilibrium, of thought. Piaget maintained that individuals move back and forth between states of cognitive equilibrium and disequilibrium. The sensorimotor stage, which lasts from birth to about 2 years of age, is the first Piagetian stage. In this stage, infants construct an understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experiences (such as seeing and hearing) with physical, motoric actions—hence the term sensorimotor. ● ● ● The preoperational stage, which lasts approximately from 2 to 7 years of age, is the second Piagetian stage. In this stage, children begin to represent the world with words, images, and drawings. Symbolic thought goes beyond simple connections of information and action. The concrete operational stage, which lasts approximately from 7 to 11 years of age, is the third Piagetian stage. Logical reasoning replaces intuitive thought as long as the reasoning can be applied to specific or concrete examples. According to Piaget, concrete operational thought involves operations—mental actions that allow individuals to do mentally what earlier they did physically. The formal operational stage is Piaget's fourth and final stage of cognitive development. ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● Piaget argued that this stage emerges at 11 to 15 years of age. Adolescents' developing power of thought opens up new cognitive and social horizons Piaget gave this type of problem solving an imposing name, hypothetical-deductive reasoning—that is, the ability to develop hypotheses, or best guesses, about how to solve problems, such as algebraic equations. Having developed a hypothesis, the formal operational thinker then systematically deduces, or concludes, the best path to follow in solving the problem. In contrast, children are more likely to solve problems by trial and error. Early formal operational thought. Adolescents' newfound ability to think in hypothetical ways produces unconstrained thoughts with unlimited possibilities. In this early period, flights of fantasy may submerge reality and the world is perceived subjectively and idealistically. Assimilation is the dominant process in this subperiod. Late formal operational thought. As adolescents test their reasoning against experience, intellectual balance is restored. Through accommodation, adolescents begin to adjust to the upheaval they have experienced. Late formal thought may appear in the middle adolescent years. Piaget was a genius when it came to observing children. His careful observations documented inventive new ways to discover how children act on and adapt to their world. Piaget showed us some important things to look for in cognitive development, such as the shift from preoperational to concrete operational thinking. He also pointed out that children need to make their experiences fit their schemas, or cognitive frameworks, yet they can simultaneously adapt their schemas based on information gained through experience. He also revealed that cognitive change is likely to occur if the context is structured to allow gradual movement to the next higher level. We owe to Piaget the current belief that a concept does not emerge suddenly, full blown, but develops instead through a series of partial accomplishments that lead to an increasingly comprehensive understanding. THIS IS FOR THE CASE STUDY!!!!!!!!!! For example, conservation of number (which Piaget said emerged at approximately 7 years of age in the concrete operational stage) has been demonstrated as early as age 3 (which instead is early in Piaget's preoperational stage). Other cognitive abilities often emerge later than Piaget indicated (Casey, 2015). Many adolescents still think in concrete operational ways or are just beginning to master formal operations. Even as adults, many individuals are not formal operational thinkers. The evidence does not support Piaget's view that prior to age 11 children don't engage in abstract thinking and that from 11 years onward they do (Kuhn, 2009). Thus, adolescents' cognitive development is not as stage-like as Piaget envisioned (Muller & Kerns, 2015; Ricco, 2015). One group of cognitive developmentalists, the neo-Piagetians, conclude that Piaget's theory does not adequately focus on attention, memory, and cognitive strategies that adolescents use to process information, and that Piaget's explanations of cognitive changes are too general. They especially maintain that a more accurate vision of children's and adolescents' thinking requires more knowledge of the strategies they use, how rapidly and automatically they process information, the particular cognitive tasks involved in processing information, and the division of cognitive problems into smaller, more precise steps. Finally, culture and education exert stronger influences on development than Piaget envisioned (Gauvain & Perez, 2015). For example, the age at which individuals acquire conservation skills is associated to some extent with the degree to which their culture provides relevant educational practice (Cole, 2006). In many developing countries, educational opportunities are limited and formal operational thought is rare. You will read shortly about Lev Vygotsky's theory of cognitive development, in which culture is given a more prominent role than in Piaget’s theory Reflective and Relativistic Thinking William Perry (1970, 1999) also described changes ● in cognition that take place in early adulthood. He said that adolescents often view the world in terms of polarities—right/wrong, we/they, or good/bad. As youth age into adulthood, they gradually move away from this type of absolutist thinking as they become aware of the diverse opinions and multiple perspectives of others. Thus, in Perry's view, the absolutist, dualistic thinking of adolescence gives way to the reflective, relativistic thinking of adulthood. Expanding on Perry's view, Gisela Labouvie-Vief (2006) proposed that the increasing complexity of cultures in the past century has generated a greater need for more reflective, complex thinking that takes into account the changing nature of knowledge and challenges. She also emphasizes that the key aspects of cognitive development in emerging adulthood include deciding on a specific worldview, recognizing that the worldview is subjective, and understanding that diverse worldviews should be acknowledged. In her perspective, considerable individual variation characterizes the thinking of emerging adults, with the highest level of thinking attained only by some. She argues that the level of education emerging adults achieve especially influences how likely they are to maximize their cognitive potential. Postformal thought has the following characteristics: ● Reflective, relativistic, and contextual. As young adults engage in solving problems, they might think deeply about many aspects of work, politics, relationships, and other areas of life (Labouvie-Vief, 1986). They find that what might be the best solution to a problem at work (with a boss or co-worker) might not be the best solution at home (with a romantic partner). Thus, postformal thought holds that the correct answer to a problem requires reflective thinking and may vary from one situation to another. Some psychologists argue that reflective thinking continues to increase and becomes more internal and less contextual in middle age (Labouvie-Vief, Gruhn, & Studer, 2010; Mascalo & Fischer, 2010). ● ● ● Provisional. Many young adults also become more skeptical about the truth and seem unwilling to accept an answer as final. Thus, they come to see the search for truth as an ongoing and perhaps never-ending process. Realistic. Young adults understand that thinking can't always be abstract. In many instances, it must be realistic and pragmatic. Recognized as being influenced by emotion. Emerging and young adults are more likely than adolescents to understand that their thinking is influenced by emotions. However, too often negative emotions produce thinking that is distorted and self-serving at this point in development. Paul Baltes and his colleagues (2006) define wisdom as expert knowledge about the practical aspects of life that permits excellent judgment about important matters. This practical knowledge involves exceptional insight about human development and life matters, good judgment, and an understanding of how to cope with difficult life problems. Thus, wisdom, more than standard conceptions of intelligence, focuses on life's pragmatic concerns and the human condition. In regard to wisdom, research by Baltes and his colleagues (Baltes & Kunzmann, 2007; Baltes, Lindenberger, & Staudinger, 2006; Baltes & Smith, 2008) has led to the following conclusions: ● High levels of wisdom are rare. Few people, including older adults, attain a high level of wisdom. That only a small percentage of adults show wisdom supports the contention that it requires experience, practice, or complex skills. ● The time frame of late adolescence and early adulthood is the main age window for wisdom to emerge. No further advances in wisdom have been found for middle-aged and older adults beyond the level they attained as young adults, but this may have been because the problems studied were not sufficiently relevant to older adults' lives. ● ● ● ● ● ● ● Factors other than age are critical for wisdom to develop to a high level. For example, certain life experiences, such as being trained and working in a field concerned with difficult life problems and having wisdom-enhancing mentors, contribute to higher levels of wisdom. Also, people higher in wisdom have values that are more likely to consider the welfare of others rather than their own happiness. Personality-related factors, such as openness to experience and creativity, are better predictors of wisdom than cognitive factors such as intelligence. One of Vygotsky's most important concepts is the zone of proximal development (ZPD), which refers to the range of tasks that are too difficult for an individual to master alone, but that can be mastered with the guidance and assistance of adults or more-skilled peers Vygotsky's emphasis on the ZPD underscored his belief in the importance of social influences on cognitive development (Daniels, 2011). Even though their theories were proposed at about the same time, most of the world learned about Vygotsky's theory later than they learned about Piaget's theory, so Vygotsky's theory has not yet been evaluated as thoroughly. 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 Although both theories are constructivist, Vygotsky's is a social constructivist approach, which emphasizes the social contexts of learning and the construction of knowledge through social interaction. n moving from Piaget to Vygotsky, the conceptual shift is from the individual to collaboration, social interaction, and sociocultural activity (Gauvain & Perez, 2015). The end point of cognitive development for Piaget is formal operational thought. For Vygotsky, the end point can differ, depending on which skills are considered to be the most important in a particular culture. For Piaget, children construct knowledge by transforming, organizing, and reorganizing previous knowledge. For Vygotsky, children and adolescents construct knowledge through social interaction (Mahn & John-Steiner, 2013). The implication of Piaget's theory for teaching is that children need support to explore their world and discover knowledge. The main implication of Vygotsky's theory for teaching is that students need many opportunities to learn with the teacher and moreskilled peers. In both Piaget's and Vygotsky's theories, teachers serve as facilitators and guides, rather than as directors and molders of learning. Figure 6compares Vygotsky's and Piaget's theories. ● ● Deanna Kuhn (2009) has discussed some important characteristics of adolescents' information processing and thinking. In her view, in the later years of childhood, and continuing in adolescence, individuals approach cognitive levels that may or may not be achieved, in contrast with the largely universal cognitive levels that young children attain. By adolescence, considerable variation in cognitive functioning is present across ● individuals. This variability supports the argument that adolescents are producers of their own development to a greater extent than are children. Attention is the concentration and focusing of mental effort. Individuals can allocate their attention in different ways ● ● ● ● ● ● Selective attention is focusing on a specific aspect of experience that is relevant while ignoring others that are irrelevant. Focusing on one voice among many in a crowded room is an example of selective attention. Divided attention involves concentrating on more than one activity at the same time. An example of divided attention is text messaging while listening to an instructor's lecture. Sustained attention is the ability to maintain attention to a selected stimulus for a prolonged period of time. Staying focused on reading this chapter from start to finish without interruption is an example of sustained attention. Executive attention involves planning actions, allocating attention to goals, detecting and compensating for errors, monitoring progress on tasks, and dealing with novel or difficult circumstances. An example of executive attention is effectively deploying attention to engage in the aforementioned cognitive tasks while writing a 10-page paper for a history course. Memory is the retention of information over time. It is central to mental life and to information processing (Howe, 2015). To successfully learn and reason, adolescents need to hold on to information and retrieve it when necessary. Short-term memory is a limited-capacity memory system in which information is retained for as long as 30 seconds, unless the information is rehearsed (repeated), in which case it can be retained longer ● Working memory is a kind of mental “workbench” where individuals manipulate and assemble information when they make decisions, solve problems, and comprehend written and spoken language ● ● ong-term memory is 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 and improvement likely continues during adolescence, ● although this has not been well documented by researchers. Especially important in adolescent cognition are higher-order, complex cognitive processes that involve an umbrella-like concept called executive function. These cognitive processes are linked to the development of the brain's prefrontal cortex and involve managing one's thoughts to engage in goal-directed behavior and exercise self-control ● this executive function assumes a role of monitoring and managing the deployment of cognitive resources as a function of task demands. ● Cognitive control involves effective control and flexible thinking in a number of areas, including controlling attention, reducing interfering thoughts, and being cognitively flexible. Cognitive control also has been referred to as inhibitory control or effortful ● control to emphasize the ability to resist a strong inclination to do one thing but instead to do what is most effective Controlling attention is a key aspect of learning and thinking in adolescence and emerging adulthood (Rueda & Posner, 2013). Distractions that can interfere with attention in adolescence and emerging adulthood come from the external environment (other students talking while the student is trying to listen to a lecture, or the student turning on a laptop during a lecture and looking at a new friend request on Facebook, for example) or intrusive distractions from competing thoughts in the individual's mind. Self-oriented thoughts, such as worrying, self-doubt, and intense emotionally laden thoughts may especially interfere with focusing attention on thinking tasks ● Cognitive flexibility involves being aware that options and alternatives are available and ● adapting to the situation Most people make better decisions when they are calm rather than emotionally aroused, which may especially be true for adolescents (Rivers, Reyna, & Mills, 2008; Steinberg & others, 2009). Recall from our discussion of brain development earlier in the chapter that adolescents have a tendency to be emotionally intense. Thus, the same adolescent who makes a wise decision when calm may make an unwise decision when emotionally aroused (Giedd, 2012). In the heat of the moment, then, adolescents' emotions are ● ● especially likely to overwhelm their decision-making ability. For example, adolescents' willingness to make risky decisions is more likely to occur in contexts where substances and other temptations are readily available fuzzy-trace theory dual-process model, which states that decision making is influenced by two cognitive systems—“verbatim” analytical thinking (literal and precise) and gist-based intuition (simple, bottom-line meaning)—which operate in parallel. According to this theory, it is gist-based intuition that benefits adolescents' decision making most. In this view, adolescents don't benefit from engaging in reflective, detailed, higher-level cognitive analysis about a decision, especially in high-risk, real-world contexts where analysis would cause them to get bogged down in trivial detail. In such contexts, adolescents need to rely on the simple, bottom-line reality that some circumstances are so dangerous that they must be avoided at all costs. ● Further, adolescents who have a higher level of trait inhibition (self-control that helps them to manage their impulses effectively) and find themselves in risky contexts are less likely to engage in risk-taking behavior than their adolescent counterparts who have a lower level of trait inhibition ● ● Critical thinking is 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. Mindful adolescents maintain an active awareness of the circumstances in their life and are motivated to find the best solutions to tasks. They create new ideas, are open to new information, and operate from multiple perspectives. By contrast, adolescents who are not mindful are entrapped in old ideas, engage in automatic behavior, and operate from a ● single perspective Adolescence is an important transitional period in the development of critical thinking (Keating, 1990). In one study of fifth-, eighth-, and eleventh-graders, critical thinking increased with age but still occurred only in 43 percent of eleventh-graders (Klaczynski & ● Narasimham, 1998). Many adolescents showed self-serving biases in their thinking. Increased speed, automaticity, and capacity of information processing, which free ● ● cognitive resources for other purposes 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, such as planning, considering the alternatives, and cognitive monitoring ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● One way to encourage students to think critically is to present them with controversial topics or articles that present both sides of an issue to discuss (Kuhn & Franklin, 2006). Some teachers shy away from having students engage in these types of critical-thinking debates or discussions because it is not “polite” or “nice” Creativity is the ability to think in novel ways and discover unique solutions to problems. J. P. Guilford (1967) first made this distinction by contrasting convergent thinking, which produces one correct answer and is characteristic of the kind of thinking required on a conventional intelligence test, divergent thinking, which produces many answers to the same question and is more characteristic of creativity. An important teaching goal is to help students become more creative. Teachers need to recognize that students will show more creativity in some domains than in others (Kaufman & Sternberg, 2012, 2013). A student who shows creative-thinking skills in mathematics may not exhibit these skills in art, for example. School environments that encourage independent work, are stimulating but not distracting, and make resources readily available are likely to encourage students' creativity. There is mounting concern that the U.S. government's No Child Left Behind legislation has harmed the development of students' creative thinking by focusing attention on memorization of materials to do well on standardized tests (Kaufman & Sternberg, 2012, 2013). Have adolescents engage in brainstorming and come up with as many ideas as possible. Brainstorming is a technique in which individuals are encouraged to come up with creative ideas in a group, play off each other's ideas, and say practically anything that comes to mind. However, recognize that some adolescents are more creative when they work alone. Indeed, one review of research on brainstorming concluded that for many individuals, working alone can generate more ideas and better ideas than working in groups (Rickards & deCock, 2003). One reason for this is that in groups, some individuals contribute only a few ideas, whereas others do most of the creative thinking. Nonetheless, there may be benefits to brainstorming, such as team building, that support its use. Introduce adolescents to environments that stimulate creativity. Some settings nourish creativity; others depress it (Baer & Kaufman, 2013). People who encourage creativity often rely on adolescents' natural curiosity. They provide exercises and activities that stimulate adolescents to find insightful solutions to problems, rather than asking a lot of questions that require rote answers. Adults also encourage creativity by taking adolescents to locations where creativity is valued. Don't overcontrol. Teresa Amabile (1993) says that telling individuals exactly how to do things leaves them feeling that any originality is a mistake and any exploration is a waste of time. Letting adolescents select their interests and supporting their inclinations are less likely to destroy their natural curiosity than dictating which activities they should engage in. Build adolescents' confidence. To expand adolescents' creativity, encourage them to believe in their own ability to create something innovative and worthwhile. Building adolescents' confidence in their creative skills aligns with Bandura's (2012) concept of self-efficacy, the belief that one can master a situation and produce positive outcomes.