Why do neuroscientists think there may be a spurt in brain development in the mid-20's?.
Neurologists say that there are two spurts in brain growth in early adulthood. One major spurt is in the frontal lobes, which is devoted to logic, planning, and emotional control; and also increases the capacity for formal operational thinking and other abstract reasoning. This begins around age 17 and continues until about age 22.
Another growth spurt that occurs in the mid-to late 20's deals with cognitive skills and having the ability to regulate the limbic system (emotional part of the brain). Scientists believe that the capacity to integrate various brain functions doesn't fully develop until early adulthood.
2. List some ways in which college attendance affects individual development.
College attendance is associated with developmental advances in cognitive, motivational, and social domains. Evidence has shown that the longer a person remains in college, the better her performance on Piaget's formal operational tasks and other measures of abstract reasoning. In addition, student's academic and vocational aspirations rise and many students encounter people from different racial and ethnic groups. This may cause advances in moral and social reasoning and an increase in the capacity to empathize for others.
3. How is the college experience different for men and women?.
Although women have higher graduation rates than men, female's examination scores tend to be lower than male's. In addition more males are admitted into the honor's program, taken more seriously by professors, and more confident in their interactions with college faculty than females. Women are also less likely to pursue difficult majors because they have doubts about their abilities to succeed. .
However, females tend to use a greater number of study techniques that enable them leads to long-term retention of information, while males are more likely to cheat.