Lecture 1
- Child development
o Cognition
o Physical
o Social Emotional
- School psychologists
o Support students ability to learn and teachers ability to teach
o School responsible for giving every child the opportunity to develop themselves into
a fullgrown adult, good education
- Executive functions:
o Umbrella term for various cognitive processes that give rise to goal-directed
behavior
o Novel & demanding situations
o Flexible adjustment
o Adaptive behavior, creativity
o 3 core components:
Working memory
Being able to store memory
Inhibitory control/inhibition
Ability to stop your behavior, that is quite automatic, thoughts etc.
Cognitive flexibility
Ability to flexibly change perspective/behavior according to the
demands you have at that moment
o Complex functions
Planning
Reasoning
Problem solving
Performance monitoring
- Measures of simple & complex executive functioning
o Brief/Brief-2
Often used in clinical practice or school setting to assess executive
functioning in 5-18 year olds
Filled out by teachers and/or parents
, Brief-2 also 11-18 year olds can fill out a form
- Development of executive functions and the brain
o Executive functions rely mostly on prefrontal cortex function
o Different parts of the brain develop in a different way and at a different rate
o Certain areas responsible for different processes
Vocal in the area, never operate only in 1 area
- Neuroscience methods
o Phineas gage
o Structure (MRI), function (fMRI) & connectivity
o Task related fMRI
o Measuring brain function
Which brain area is responsible for a certain cognitive process
o
o
o Feedback learning
Learning from previous behavior
Essential to learn from feedback on your behavior in order to learn
Multiple executive functions
In order to learn from feedback you rely on multiple executive
functions, such as working memory, cognitive flexibility and
inhibition
Real world vs. Laboratory
,
Feedback learning predicts real-world learning
Feedback learning performance
Neural activity
o - 2 years later
Reading fluency
Mathematics
- Predict behavior on performance before; huge differences in individuals on how these
perform in those tasks
- DON’T NEED TO REMEMBER BRAIN AREAS
- Adolescents:
o Characterized by impulsivity
Impulsive, not thinking about long-term consequences, difficulty planning
o Executive function deficit?
No def. Not, PFC better than in childhood (although not fully developed yet)
but peak in emotional sensitivity
, -
o What happens in adolesence?
Behavior is influenced by both cognitive and emotional brain regions
Imbalance in adolescense seems like poor executive function
Able to plan, sometimes emotional brain area takes the overhand
Main message: adolescent are capable of doing this, social motivations
sometimes are seen as more important by the adolescents
Adolescents: better EF compared to children, not worse, but driven by
immediate rewards
Systems balance out again in adulthood, as development of PFC completes
Individual differences
Marshmallow test performance at age 4 predictive of inhibitory control 40
years later?
- Child development
o Cognition
o Physical
o Social Emotional
- School psychologists
o Support students ability to learn and teachers ability to teach
o School responsible for giving every child the opportunity to develop themselves into
a fullgrown adult, good education
- Executive functions:
o Umbrella term for various cognitive processes that give rise to goal-directed
behavior
o Novel & demanding situations
o Flexible adjustment
o Adaptive behavior, creativity
o 3 core components:
Working memory
Being able to store memory
Inhibitory control/inhibition
Ability to stop your behavior, that is quite automatic, thoughts etc.
Cognitive flexibility
Ability to flexibly change perspective/behavior according to the
demands you have at that moment
o Complex functions
Planning
Reasoning
Problem solving
Performance monitoring
- Measures of simple & complex executive functioning
o Brief/Brief-2
Often used in clinical practice or school setting to assess executive
functioning in 5-18 year olds
Filled out by teachers and/or parents
, Brief-2 also 11-18 year olds can fill out a form
- Development of executive functions and the brain
o Executive functions rely mostly on prefrontal cortex function
o Different parts of the brain develop in a different way and at a different rate
o Certain areas responsible for different processes
Vocal in the area, never operate only in 1 area
- Neuroscience methods
o Phineas gage
o Structure (MRI), function (fMRI) & connectivity
o Task related fMRI
o Measuring brain function
Which brain area is responsible for a certain cognitive process
o
o
o Feedback learning
Learning from previous behavior
Essential to learn from feedback on your behavior in order to learn
Multiple executive functions
In order to learn from feedback you rely on multiple executive
functions, such as working memory, cognitive flexibility and
inhibition
Real world vs. Laboratory
,
Feedback learning predicts real-world learning
Feedback learning performance
Neural activity
o - 2 years later
Reading fluency
Mathematics
- Predict behavior on performance before; huge differences in individuals on how these
perform in those tasks
- DON’T NEED TO REMEMBER BRAIN AREAS
- Adolescents:
o Characterized by impulsivity
Impulsive, not thinking about long-term consequences, difficulty planning
o Executive function deficit?
No def. Not, PFC better than in childhood (although not fully developed yet)
but peak in emotional sensitivity
, -
o What happens in adolesence?
Behavior is influenced by both cognitive and emotional brain regions
Imbalance in adolescense seems like poor executive function
Able to plan, sometimes emotional brain area takes the overhand
Main message: adolescent are capable of doing this, social motivations
sometimes are seen as more important by the adolescents
Adolescents: better EF compared to children, not worse, but driven by
immediate rewards
Systems balance out again in adulthood, as development of PFC completes
Individual differences
Marshmallow test performance at age 4 predictive of inhibitory control 40
years later?
