Brain Development, Risk Taking
and Skill Acquisition in
Adolescents
William E. Van Tassel, Ph.D.
&
Erin Bann Van Tassel, Ed.D.
Outline of Presentation
Brain anatomy and brain development
Risk-taking and risk behavior
Skill Acquisition
Teen Brain Quiz: T or F?
1. Teens’ brains are mature by around age 17
2. The brains of male teens and female teens
mature at approximately the same rate
3. When teens cause crashes, they are more
likely to kill themselves than other drivers
Teen Brain Quiz: T or F?
4. GDL has helped reduce teen crashes by
helping them gain experience under lowrisk conditions
5. During adolescence, some connections in
teens’ brains are removed
6. Teens should be prevented from
experiencing any risk while learning to drive
Teen Brain Quiz: T or F?
7. Teens are poor at recognizing risks
8. “Brain Training” programs can help
reduce teen drivers’ risks
9. Seniors’ brains process information more
slowly than teens’ brains
Brain Development
Brain Development
Brain Development
Brain Development
Interpretations of the Research
Cognitive-control regions: outer regions of the brain
Socio-emotional network: inner regions of the brain
Implications for brain development as it
applies to learning to drive a motor vehicle
Possible Strategies for Driver
Educators:
Brain Development
Understand the developmental traits of your students and
incorporate stories into the lessons (role modeling/role playing)
Review the curriculum and if necessary, adjust according to the
way adolescents process decision-making (rewards vs risk)
Offer motivators or incentives for correct and safe execution of
driving tasks (competence and reinforcement)
Selected Research in Adolescent RiskTaking Behavior
Selected Research in Adolescent
Risk-Taking Behavior
Selected Research in Adolescent
Risk-Taking Behavior
Opportunity
Benefits
Risk Propensity
O(high) + B(high) + RP(high) = RA
Implications for risk-taking as it applies
to learning to drive a motor vehicle
Possible Strategies for Driver
Educators:
Risk-taking
Class discussion and role-playing in driving task scenarios to tease out
rationales and confront the teenage mindset (Socratic method-What
would you do? Why did you do that? Did you notice this?)
Create an atmosphere of trust and involve the parents in every aspect of
the learning process (make teen driving teams out of families and driver
educators)
Use humor. Use games. Use video games. Use movement activities.
(whole body learning and emotional reinforcement)
Skill Acquisition
Five Stages of Skill Acquisition
Skill Level
Components Perspective
1. Novice
Context free
None
2. Adv. Beg.
Context free
Situational
None
Decision
Commitment
Analytic
Detached
Analytic
3. Competent Context free
Situational
Chosen
4. Proficient
Context free
Situational
Experienced
Analytic
5. Expert
Context free
Situational
Experienced
Intuitive
Detached
Analytic
Detached understanding
and deciding;
Involved outcome
Involved understanding;
Detached deciding
Involved
Skill Acquisition
https://performancexdesign.wordpress.com
Interpretations of the Research
Strategies: New Technologies
Questions?
Thank you!
William E. Van Tassel, Ph.D.
&
Erin Bann Van Tassel, Ed.D.
wvantassel@national.aaa.com
efloydbann@gmail.com
Interpretations of the Research
Skill Acquisition
Brain Development
Implications for skill acquisition as it
applies to learning to drive a motor
vehicle
Possible Strategies for Driver
Educators:
Skill Acquisition
Practice in the car
Practice in the classroom
Use the concept of “right practice” to inform your
curriculum
Virtual Reality?
Advocacy Issues
Continue to raise the driving age through Graduated
Licensing Programs.
Encourage fathers, in all phases of learning to drive, to be
actively engaging their teens about making good decisions
on the road.
Continue to tailor delivery of driver education
programming to take advantage of how teens think, rather
than how we wish they would think.