Annual Review of Developmental Psychology - Early Publication

This essay contains an account of my professional life from its beginnings as a third-generation, Skinnerian, mathematical learning theorist to its current state as an interdisciplinary developmentalist. Following completion of my PhD at Indiana University, I spent the academic year at Moscow State University where I worked under the direction of Alexander Luria, whose ideas led to my lifelong interest in cultural-historical approaches to human development. For more than a decade, I conducted cross-cultural research on the role of formal schooling in the cognitive development of children growing up in a variety of sociocultural conditions. Since the late 1970s, my research has focused on the design of educational activities involving partnerships between institutions of higher learning and their communities. A constant concern throughout this work has been the inappropriate use of psychological methods when comparing people from different culture backgrounds and a search for the means required to remediate the resulting difficulties.

Adaptability is a distinguishing feature of the human species: We thrive as hunter-gatherers, farmers, and urbanites. What properties of our brains make us highly adaptable? We review neuroscience studies of sensory loss, language acquisition, and cultural skills (reading, mathematics, programming). The evidence supports a flexible specialization account. On the one hand, adaptation is enabled by evolutionarily prepared flexible learning systems, both domain-specific social learning systems (e.g., language) and domain-general systems (frontoparietal reasoning). On the other hand, the functional flexibility of our neural wetware enables us to acquire cognitive capacities not selected for by evolution. Heightened plasticity during a protracted period of development enhances cognitive flexibility. Early in life, local cortical circuits are capable of acquiring a wide range of cognitive capacities. Exuberant cross-network connectivity makes it possible to combine old neural parts in new ways, enabling cognitive flexibility such as language acquisition across modalities (spoken, signed, braille) and cultural skills (math, programming). Together, these features of the human brain make it uniquely adaptable.

Ubiquitous misinformation on social media threatens the health and well-being of young people. We review research on susceptibility to misinformation, why it spreads, and how these mechanisms might operate developmentally. Although we identify many research gaps, results suggest that cognitive ability, thinking styles, and metacognitive scrutiny of misinformation are protective, but early adverse experiences can bias information processing and sow seeds of mistrust. We find that content knowledge is not sufficient to protect against misinformation, but that it, along with life experiences, provides a foundation for gist plausibility (true in principle, rather than true at the level of verbatim details) that likely determines whether misinformation is accepted and shared. Thus, we present a theoretical framework based on fuzzy-trace theory that integrates knowledge that distinguishes verbatim facts from gist (knowledge that is amplified by cognitive faculties and derived from trusted sources); personality as an information-processing filter colored by experiences; emotion as a product of interpreting the gist of information; and ideology that changes prior probabilities and gist interpretations of what is plausible. The young and the old may be at greatest risk because of their prioritization of social goals, a need that social-media algorithms are designed to meet but at the cost of widespread exposure to misinformation.

On average, most aspects of adult human brains and cognitive functions experience decline with age, yet individuals also differ greatly in how much decline they experience. This review surveys the state of the art in neurocognitive aging research and our progress toward understanding brain and cognitive aging. It covers the empirical evidence that characterizes their respective mean changes with age before highlighting the substantial and important heterogeneity in how severely people experience aging. It then discusses major neurocognitive aging theories and current supporting evidence alongside methodological and conceptual caveats, including those arising from the replication crisis. This review concludes by using a systems biology schema to survey newer areas of research and future opportunities that will serve to narrow the gaps between biological levels of explanation, furthering our understanding of mechanisms, the stratification of risk, and ameliorative strategies.

This review provides a comprehensive evaluation of adolescent identity development research, critically examining the significant gap between the global distribution of adolescents and the focus of scholarly work. While over 85% of the world's youth live in the majority world—Africa, Asia, and Latin America—only 15% of developmental psychology studies explore these populations, revealing a critical gap in global perspectives on adolescent identity development. This review also emphasizes the lack of theoretical and empirical focus on the transformative role of digital technology in shaping identities. Through a systematic review of research, we provide both an empirical base and a conceptual framework to understand adolescent identity in an increasingly connected world. We also suggest several concrete steps for incorporating global perspectives and digital realities into developmental psychology research in general and identity development research in particular.

Research has begun to identify genetic, environmental, and neurocognitive risk factors related to the development of youth antisocial behavior (aggression, rule-breaking). We review environmental and genetic risk factors for the development of antisocial behavior and related outcomes (e.g., callous-unemotional traits), as well as provide an overview of neural correlates of antisocial behavior. Next, we connect these findings to work in developmental neuroscience linking exposure to adversity to brain structure and function. Then we integrate across these literatures to provide a multilevel model of the development of antisocial behavior that includes transactions between genetic and environmental risk that shape brain development. Throughout, we focus on how pathways may differ for youth with different subtypes of antisocial behavior (e.g., early-onset) with a particular focus on callous-unemotional traits. We end by identifying challenges and future directions for the field.

Sleep is fundamental to human existence—especially during periods of extensive neurodevelopment such as adolescence. Importantly, poor sleep health in the transition into puberty can impact developing neural systems, contributing to the onset and maintenance of emotional disorders such as anxiety and depression. This review explores the complex interplay between sleep and neuroaffective development in adolescence, when changes in sleep architecture, circadian rhythms, and hormonal fluctuations interact with ongoing brain maturation to impact cognitive and emotional functioning. By synthesizing extant literature and charting future directions for research and intervention, this review elucidates the bidirectional associations between sleep and neuroaffective processes during puberty and highlights how sleep architecture and neurophysiology can inform our understanding of adolescent brain development. Ultimately, this article argues that promoting sleep health and addressing sleep-related challenges, especially in early adolescence, are promising strategies for enhancing well-being and fostering positive neurodevelopmental outcomes across both healthy and clinical populations.

Like previous generations, today's youth are engaging in political activism to positively transform their local communities and the broader society. This review applies critical consciousness theory to shed light on the factors that spur youth political activism and to highlight how developing critical consciousness engenders developmental benefits. Critical consciousness refers to structural and historical reasoning about inequality, motivation to promote social change, and political activism to bring about social equity. A succinct review of outcomes associated with critical consciousness is presented first, followed by a nuanced contemporary understanding of the precursors to youth critical consciousness development. In closing, this review highlights exciting emerging directions in this area of research and offers reflections on the trajectory of critical consciousness scholarship. All told, critical consciousness research illuminates a strength-based approach for supporting youth's healthy development that adequately attends to the psychological, historical, and structural facets of youth experience.