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06/27/2016 12:26

Study on human developmental stages

Lisa Rasche Presse- und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit
HMKW Hochschule für Medien, Kommunikation und Wirtschaft

    The article “Neural correlates of postformal stages of reasoning: Biological determinants of developmental stage“ by S. R. Leite, C. D. Barker and M. G. Lucas has recently been published in the Behavioral Development Bulletin of the American Psychological Associaton. The author Dr. Marc. G. Lucas, Professor of Business Psychology, conducts his research at HMKW University of Applied Sciences in Media, Communication and Business in Cologne, Germany.

    The article “Neural correlates of postformal stages of reasoning: Biological determinants of developmental stage“ by S. R. Leite, C. D. Barker and M. G. Lucas (HMKW Cologne) shows findings on the topic of biological determinants of the human developmental stage. The team of researchers has focused on the reasons why “some individuals are hardwired to perform at higher stages than others”.

    Abstract:
    The latest research on the developmental stage, according to the Model of Hierarchical Complexity (MHC), shows that there is only one domain, that stage develops as log2(age) and that the number of neurons of a species can predict the mean stage attained by that species. This can be interpreted as saying that biology controls stage. However, humans attain different stages and the biological mechanism that limits stage is still unknown. Based on these findings, we argue that cognitive neuroscience studies of human intelligence should shift from the general laws that govern development and brain maturation to focusing on interindividual differences across development, so as to complete the picture of human cognition beyond statistical norms. We here propose a study that looks for differences in patterns of the brain activation between subjects performing below and above formal stages. What differentiates this study from others that have been conducted in the field of developmental psychology and cognitive neuroscience is that this will explain for the first time not how, but why, some individuals are hardwired to perform at higher stages than others. We intend to analyze the data across different hierarchical complexity tasks and extract a saturation index (SI) that informs about the processing load of problem solving. Second, we compare the SI across subjects who attained different stages. This knowledge will provide for understanding the biological basis of cognition, for improving the behavioral predictive MHC, and for developing a connectionist model of cognition that emulates development throughout life.

    Prof. Dr. Marc Lucas teaches “Psychological methodology” and other subjects as part of the BA Media and Business Psychology. The article’s topic of human decision-making behavior is part of the module “Decision-making & Behavioral Finance” of the HMKW Masters in Business Psychology, on which Prof. Lucas teaches in Cologne (module “Recent Trends in Organizational Psychology”). The MA program is taught in English at HMKW Berlin and in German at HMKW Cologne.


    More information:

    http://www.hmkw.de/hochschule/lehrende/fachbereich-psychologie/marc-lucas/ CV of Prof. Dr. Marc Lucas
    http://www.hmkw.de/news/artikel/koeln-wissenschaftliche-veroeffentlichung-fachbe... News on www.hmkw.de in German
    http://www.hmkw.de/en/study/ma-programs/ma-business-psychology/ Information on the MA program in English
    http://www.hmkw.de/studium/bachelor-studium/ba-medien-und-wirtschaftspsychologie... Information on the BA program in German


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    Criteria of this press release:
    Scientists and scholars
    Economics / business administration, Psychology
    transregional, national
    Scientific Publications
    English


     

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