Creating Capacity - SACPPA 2012

What's changed?

What's not changed?

Hybrid laparoscopy training system (video & real)

Past game play (>3hr/week)

37% fewer errors (P<0.02)

27% faster (P<0.03)

High scoring gamers (top tertile)

47% fewer error (P<0.001)

39% faster (P<0.001)

Relative weight analysis

0.3% years of training

2% sex

2% cases performed

10% video game experience

31% video game skill

frontal lobes in

executive function

Most interconnected region of the brain: all other parts of the brain (sensory, motor, automatic emotions)

Plays coordinating roles:

- integrates diverse representations

- exerts control over systems

Last to finish developing

Future Proofing#2

View of self as learner

Application: the child’s concentration and perseverance and his/her ability to understand and complete complex tasks

Locus of control: the degree to which students perceived events to be within their control and their sense of personal agency

The non-cognitive

factors became 25%

more important

in determining

earnings later in

life between 1958 and 1970 cohort while cognitive factors became 20% less important.

Creating capacity for an uncertain world

future-proofing our children

1967 David Riesman

1969 William H. Stewart

“We can close the book on infectious diseases”

“If anything remains more or less unchanged, it will be the role of women.”

1949 Popular Mechanics magazine

"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons."

Downloading essays from the internet "could not be controlled"

"The availability of the internet is a powerful aid to learning but carries a new generation of risks of plagiarism."

creating capacity for an uncertain world

Question Poor

Question Rich

future proofing

our children

Answer Rich

Answer Poor

Prof Martin Westwell

"How many senses do we have?"

1

FutureProofing #1

Take control of your thinking

Take control of your thinking

"stop-and-think"

executive functions

“It’s in your genes”

Theory of intelligence

Neuromyths: visual learners,

left brain thinkers, etc

Incremental

skill acquisition

learning goals

utility of effort

setbacks:

change strategy

“intellectual ability

can be developed”

boys

vs

girls

Theory of intelligence (young adolescents)

L.S. Blackwell et al Child Development (2007) 78 246-263

Limitation through categorisation

Purposeless streaming

“Dad couldn’t do that either”

measuring ability

performance goals

futility of effort

setbacks:

perservere/withdraw

“intellectual ability fixed”

Value of education,

literacy, etc

Entity

Specialist

schools/courses

L.S. Blackwell et al Child Development (2007) 78 246-263

Murphy & Dweck (2010) PSPB 36 283-296

"Culture of genius"

Organisation’s “theory of intelligence” affects inferences about what is valued and behavioural decisions

Present “smarts” to

entity environment

Present “motivation” to

incremental environment

21 residents, 12 attending, 15 men, 18 women

sustaining

attention

active participation

Rosse et al 2007, Archives of Surgery

prioritising

planning

… For those with the capacity to take advantage of these changes, typically the affluent, expanding opportunities led to improved outcomes. But for those without, events left them further behind than ever.”

goal

setting

acting on

a plan

(Margo & Dixon, 2006)

inhibitory

control

strategies

sticking to

a plan

problem

solving

Moffitt et al 2011, PNAS USA

working

memory

measured

risk-taking

error

checking

"delaying gratification"

cognitive flexibility

5.4%

4.7%

4.2%

3.0%

1.3%

decision

making

switching

attention

literacy & numeracy

anticipating

Mathematics

Application

Copying

Locus of control

Reading

View of yourself as a learner

Blandon et al. Working Paper no. 06/146, University of Bristol

People born in 1970:

Aged 10

Aged 10

Aged 5

Aged 10

Aged 10

2

Moffitt et al 2011, PNAS USA

Thinking that occurs without conscious control

In parallel

Well rehearsed (routine)

All over brain

e.g. steering, braking, etc

4 year olds

Automatic

"resisting"

marshmallows

Activity everywhere and enhanced almost everywhere

Impossible to keep track of everything -

most mental processes happen automatically

“… those children who became more self-controlled from childhood to young adulthood had better outcomes by the age of 32 y, even after controlling for their initial levels of childhood self-control.”

sociability

frustration

Walter Mischel

Executive functions

self-esteem

Biggest difference in the frontal lobes

Controlled (EF)

"Active" thinking" taking effort

One at a time

Novel responses

More frontal lobes

e.g. planning a journey

SAT scores

(uni entry)

Frontal lobes mediate “high-order” thinking?

Mischel et al., (1969), Science 244 933-938;

Casey et al., (2011) PNAS USA, 108, 14998-15003

Haier & Benbow (1995) Dev Neuropsych

Aspects of our thinking that relates to how we control our thoughts and actions

Diamond et al (2007) Science

Used in new environments or when you have to do something different to normal - organise our thinking and behaviour

martin.westwell@flinders.edu.au

N. Gotay et al Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA (2004) 101 8174-8179

value - modeling - practice

development 4 - 21 years old