HDFS 363 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Synaptic Pruning, Prefrontal Cortex, Moral Development
14 Dec 2015
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Document Summary
Cognitive and moral development in young adulthood: changes in thinking during young adulthood. Brain development in prefrontal cortex is still developing into mid 20s. This increases the efficiency in which young adults comprehend and evaluate abstract material and integrate emotions. Prefrontal cortex synaptic pruning- discarding of unused synaptic connections. Myelination- strengths connections by making impulses travel faster through the axon relativistic thinking (realizing facts can be explained in different ways) Ambiguities and contradictions (realizing uncertainty is often unavoidable) integrate emotions and reasoning (cognitive-affective complexity: postformal thought, reflective judgment reflect on knowledge itself. Understand that knowledge is often uncertain and often needs to be revised. Monitor and regulate own cognitive processes (be able to be mindful of what you"re paying attention to) reflective judgment emerges gradually and is key to a lot of types of higher education. Development of moral judgment and behavior (what is right: moral development and what is wrong)
