![\"Adolescent](\"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/AdobeStock_13132903_Credit.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n(A high-school junior I taught once composed a new soliloquy for Hamlet. Speaking of Claudius — the uncle who murdered Hamlet’s own father — Hamlet says: “My unfather unfathered me.” I think the Bard himself envies that line.)<\/p>\n
And, at other times, they baffle us with their extraordinary foolishness.<\/p>\n
(At the next Learning and the Brain conference, ask me about the teens who kidnapped a teacher’s dog\u00a0as a gesture of respect and affection<\/em>.)<\/p>\n How do we make sense of this puzzle?<\/p>\n Recent research<\/a> offers one intriguing answer.<\/p>\n Catherine Insel, working as part of Leah Somerville’s lab<\/a>, wondered if teens recognize the difference between high stakes and low stakes. Better said: she wanted to know if they behaved differently in those distinct settings.<\/p>\n She had students aged 13-20 perform a “go\/no-go task.” When they saw a blue<\/em> circle or a yellow<\/em> circle or a purpley<\/em> circle, they pressed a button. When they saw a stripey<\/em> circle, they did NOT press the button. That is, they had to inhibit the instinct to press the button.<\/p>\n That’s a kind of self-control.<\/p>\n Some of the time, they faced small rewards and penalties: plus twenty cents for getting it right, minus ten cents for getting it wrong.<\/p>\n Some of the time, they faced larger rewards and penalties: plus one dollar for getting it right, minutes fifty cents for getting it wrong.<\/p>\n You might predict that adolescents would be more careful when the stakes were higher. That is, their score would be better when a WHOLE DOLLAR was on the line.<\/p>\n But: nope. That’s not what happened.<\/p>\n In the age groups from 13-18, they did equally well on low- and high-stakes tasks. Only the 19- and 20-year-olds were measurably better at high-stakes than low-stakes.<\/p>\n Put simply: adolescents simply didn’t respond to the difference between high-stakes and low-stakes tests<\/em>.<\/p>\n So far, Insel and colleagues were looking at behavior<\/em>; that’s the study of psychology<\/em>. They also looked at brain differences<\/em>; that’s the study of neuroscience<\/em>.<\/p>\n In particular, they focused on two brain areas.<\/p>\n The pre-frontal cortex — the part of the brain just behind the forehead — helps manage “higher” brain processes, such as inhibition<\/em>.<\/p>\n The striatum — deep in the center of the brain — is a key part of the “reward network,” and influences motivation<\/em> and decision-making<\/em>.<\/p>\n (By the way, almost ALL brain regions — including the pre-frontal cortex and the striatum — participate in MANY different brain functions.)<\/p>\n They found that the connection between these regions matures over time.<\/p>\n That is, the self-control functions of the pre-frontal cortex are increasingly able to manage the reward networks of the striatum.<\/p>\n No wonder, then, that adolescents get better at controlling their impulses. Only gradually does the “control” part of the brain take firm control over the “impulse” part of the brain.<\/p>\n Insel’s research shows not only THAT teens don’t effectively distinguish between high- and low-stakes; it helps explain WHY they don’t: the appropriate brain networks haven’t fully matured.<\/p>\n This research suggests that high-stakes testing just might not be developmentally appropriate for this age group.<\/p>\n After all: adults recognize the importance of high-stakes work. We know to prepare for job interviews differently than we do for daily meetings. We know to be on our best behavior when we meet potential future in-laws; perhaps we relax a bit once they’re actual in-laws.<\/p>\n Teens, however, just don’t recognize that distinction as well.<\/p>\n In other words: if you needed another reason to downplay high-stakes testing, Insel and Somerville’s research provides just that.<\/p>\n If you’re particularly interesting in this topic, we’ve posted about it frequently on this blog.<\/p>\n Here’s<\/a> a link to Somerville’s work, in which she explores the boundaries between adolescence ad adulthood.<\/p>\n Here’s<\/a> a Ted-talk by Sarah-Jayne Blakemore exploring the mysteries of adolescence.<\/p>\n Richard Cash is running an LatB Workshop specifically on self-regulation. You can check it out here<\/a>.\u00a0And, I’m running a Learning and the Brain workshop on teaching adolescents in April. Click here<\/a> if you’re interested in learning more.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Why is adolescent self-control so difficult? Recent research suggests that teens don’t consistently recognize the difference between high-stakes and low-stakes situations. And: the brain networks that help them do so don’t mature until we turn 19 or 20.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":3166,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[72,15,73,14],"class_list":["post-3161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lb-blog","tag-adolescence","tag-classroom-advice","tag-pre-frontal-cortex","tag-self-control"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3161"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3173,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3161\/revisions\/3173"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Adolescent Self-Control: High Stakes and Mistakes<\/h2>\n
Adolescent Self-control: The Brain Part<\/h2>\n
Teaching Implications<\/h2>\n
More to Know<\/h2>\n