A Presentation and Panel Discussion

• Wouter van den Bos, Associate Professor, University of Amsterdam Social and Behavioral Sciences, Program group Developmental Psychology
   
• Linda Wilbrecht, Associate Professor, UC Berkeley Department of Psychology, Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute
   
• Anne Collins, Assistant Professor, UC Berkeley Department of Psychology, Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute
   
• Ron Dahl, Director of the Institute of Human Development

This colloquium will focus on emerging understanding of how basic learning processes change during adolescent development. Recent areas of progress include basic science advances using Reinforcement Learning models, behavioral studies of learning in animals, and behavioral and neuroimaging studies of learning in adolescents. One major theme of this work emphasizes the importance of (adaptive) social learning during adolescent development. In some ways, social learning represents the most salient developmental task of human adolescence—acquiring the vast amount of knowledge and skills necessary to become a socially competent adult. This includes rapid experiential learning about self and others, who and when to trust, and how to navigate the often confusing and rapidly changing social hierarchies of peers, schools, neighborhoods—as well as increasingly, an exceedingly complex digital social world. Emerging insights from basic science investigations into sensitive periods of social learning in adolescence could inform a broad range of real-world issues and challenges facing adolescents.

Wouter van den Bos, who has led several pioneering studies into these issues and will present an overview of some of his recent work. This will be followed by comments from Linda Willbrecht and Anne Collins, and moderator Ron Dahl, who have worked together on a Science of Learning Research Network grant from NSF focusing on learning in adolescence.

Please join us for what we hope will be a lively and interesting discussion of these important issues.