Cognitive Development in Adolescence

11 Key excerpts on "Cognitive Development in Adolescence"

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  An Introduction to Developmental Psychology

  • Alan Slater, J. Gavin Bremner, Alan Slater, J. Gavin Bremner(Authors)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • BPS Blackwell

    (Publisher)

  Thus, while some aspects of thinking mature during adolescence, other aspects continue to develop beyond adolescence. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS This chapter has been about thinking in adolescence. A large body of research has indicated that adolescent thinking is qualitatively different from the thinking of young children. This is true of the complex thinking involved in reasoning, for example, or in what we normally think of as ‘intelligence’. It is also true, how- ever, in areas you may not normally consider as part of ‘thinking’, for example perception and attention. Compared to the perceptions and attention of younger children, perception and attention in adolescence are more flexible. Increased flex- ibility is also evident in the advanced ways adolescents use strategies to enhance their memory relative to what young children are capable of. Reasoning and prob- lem-solving can be carried out at a less concrete level than in younger years, ideas captured in Piaget’s notions of formal operational thinking. Of course, adolescents are still apprentices in thinking. They are yet to learn some more sophisticated ways of thinking such as conducting truly scientific investigation and carrying out abstract logical reasoning. Nevertheless, the thinking skills acquired during adoles- cence lay the foundation for taking on the more complex and diverse problems of adulthood. Cognitive Development in Adolescence 573 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING Eysenck, M.W., & Keane, M.T. (2010). Cognitive psychology: A student’s handbook (6th edn). New York and East Sussex: Psychology Press. Garton, A.F. (2004). Exploring cognitive development: The child as problem solver. Cambridge, MA and Oxford: Blackwell. Goswami, U. (2008). Cognitive development: The learning brain. New York and East Sussex: Psychology Press. Lee, K. (Ed.) (2000). Cognitive development: The essential readings. Cambridge, MA and Oxford: Blackwell. Siegler, R.S., & Alibali, M.W.

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  The Development of Children and Adolescents

  An Applied Perspective

  • Penny Hauser-Cram, J. Kevin Nugent, Kathleen Thies, John F. Travers(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  However, as we have seen, cognitive psychologists operating from an information processing perspective are increasingly considering the importance of the psychosocial context in which learning and decision making occur (Wolff & Crockett, 2011). 1. What types of processing changes occur during adolescence? 2. What are the differences between the two levels of metacognition? 3. Why does decision making sometimes fail to reflect an adolescent’s cognitive skills? C H E C K Y O U R P R O G R E S S C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H E C E C E C E C E C E C E C E C E C E C E C E C E C E C K K K K K K K K K K K K K K Y O Y O Y O Y O Y O Y O Y O Y O Y O Y O Y O Y O Y O Y O U R U R U R U R U R U R U R U R U R U R U R U R U R U R P P P P P P P P P P P P P P R O R O R O R O R O R O R O R O R O R O R O R O R O R O G R G R G R G R G R G R G R G R G R G R G R G R G R G R E S E S E S E S E S E S E S E S E S E S E S E S E S E S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S C H E C K Y O U R P R O G R E S S C H E C Y O U R R O G R E S S ✓ THE DEVELOPING BRAIN The Brain and Adolescent Cognition [ KEY QUESTION ] 4. What are some major changes that occur in the adolescent brain? So far in this chapter, we have reviewed three major theories of adolescent cognitive development. Before moving on to a consideration of adolescent schooling, let’s take a moment to examine a few aspects of brain development in adolescence that are impor- tant in cognitive development. Not too long ago, it was believed that most changes in the brain occurred before adolescence. But as we discussed in Chapter 14, an explosion in neuroscience research has revealed that the adolescent brain undergoes structural refinement and reorgani- zation (Ramsden et al., 2011; Silveri, Tzilos, Yurgelun-Todd, 2008).

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  Lifespan Development, 5th Australasian Edition, P-eBK

  • Michele Hoffnung, Robert J. Hoffnung, Kelvin L. Seifert, Abi Brooker, Sonja Ellis, Damien Riggs, Wayne Warburton, Elyse Warner(Authors)
  • 2022(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  Thinking — the mental manipulation of information — undergoes significant changes during adolescence, as witnessed in Piaget’s reasoning tasks. The attainment of formal operations allows a marked expansion in the thinking skills of adolescents, which are applied not only in the school setting but in non-academic, practical and social situations as well. Adolescence is a period characterised by increased problem-solving activity, as adolescents are faced with numerous challenges. They may be asked to respond to problems as distinctive as analysing the impact of the Napoleonic wars on the development of European political systems, to fixing the exhaust on the second-hand car they have bought, to working out how best to resolve a conflict with their best friend over liking the same boy in their class. Critical thinking One aspect of thinking during adolescence, critical thinking, has received particular attention from theorists and researchers. Critical thinking involves thinking reflectively and creatively; keeping one’s mind open to new possibilities and viewpoints; exploring the profound meanings of ideas and issues; and making personal commitments to beliefs, after deep reflection (Brooks & Brooks, 2001; Keating & Sasse, 1996). The cognitive processes that contribute to the development of critical thinking during adolescence include greater speed, automaticity and capacity for information processing, a greater knowledge base in wide-ranging knowledge domains, increased ability to combine different pieces of knowledge, and a greater number and usage of strategies and metacognitive abilities. The elements essential to critical thinking include King and Kitchener’s (1994) fundamentals. 1. Basic operations of reasoning. To think critically, a person must be able to apply logical argument, classify, deduce conclusions, and generalise from the specific to the universal and vice versa.

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  Childhood and Adolescence

  Voyages in Development

  • Spencer Rathus(Author)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  We then turn to moral development, focusing on the views of Kohlberg and Gilligan. We conclude with a look at some areas that are strongly tied to cognitive development: school, vocational development, and work experience. Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 490 PART 6 ADOLESCENCE formal operations The fourth stage in Piaget’s cognitive-developmental theory, characterized by the capacity for flexible, reversible operations concerning abstract ideas and concepts, such as symbols, statements, and theories. The Adolescent in Thought: My, My, How “Formal” The growing intellectual capabilities of adolescents change the way they approach the world. The cognitive changes of adolescence influence how adolescents view themselves and their families and friends and how they deal with broader social and moral questions. What Are Formal Operations? What Happens During Jean Piaget’s Stage of Formal Operations? According to Piaget, adolescents may—but do not always—enter the stage of for-mal operations , which is the highest level of cognitive development in his theory. Adolescents in this stage have reached cognitive maturity, even if some rough edges remain. For many children in developed nations, the stage of formal operations can begin quite early—at about the time of puberty, 11 or 12 years of age. But some children reach this stage somewhat later, and some not at all.

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  Fundamentals of Developmental Psychology

  • Peter Mitchell, Fenja Ziegler(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Psychology Press

    (Publisher)

  3 DOI: 10.4324/9780203736357-3

  Contents

  Introduction Stages of cognitive development Piaget’s explanation of cognitive development Traditional learning theory as a contrasting explanation of development A supplement to Piaget’s theory: Self-centered adolescents Summary

  The development of thinking 3

  Chapter Aims

  • To introduce Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. To detail Piaget’s stages.
  • To detail the evidence that lends support to Piaget’s stage theory.
  • To present the mechanism that Piaget posited as responsible for cognitive development.

  Introduction

  The discipline concerned with studying the development of thinking is cognitive developmental psychology. The word “cognitive” refers to knowledge, but not necessarily according to the common meaning of the word. When people talk about knowledge, they usually mean the kind of information useful for answering questions in games such as The Weakest Link or Who Wants to be a Millionaire, or in order to do college exams. In contrast, cognitive developmentalists think of knowledge as referring to understanding about things.

  You might have noticed a child aged around 5 years speaking on the telephone about things only he can see: He seems to overlook the fact that the person he is speaking to is in a completely different location and cannot see the same things. Perhaps this is a sign that the young child is incapable of putting himself in someone else’s shoes. In the broadest sense, it is tempting to suppose that the child does not understand that other people can have different perspectives. Cognitive developmentalists look at particular difficulties children have, such as poor communication ability, and then draw general conclusions about their underdeveloped knowledge of the world. An exciting aspect of cognitive developmental psychology concerns the things children say and do in various situations, and then speculating about the meaning of these in terms of what the child does or does not know about the world.

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  Psychology

  • Ronald Comer, Elizabeth Gould, Adrian Furnham(Authors)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  Still other critics have charged that Piaget ’s theory fails to account fully for social factors, the influences that other people may have on a child ’s cognitive development (Carpendale & Lewis, 2010; Freund & Lamb, 2010). Piaget ’s theory, instead, focuses on how children guide their own development through experimentation and reflection. Later in his life, Piaget himself also wondered whether his theory said enough about the role of social experiences in development (Inhelder & Piaget, 1979; Piaget, 1972). As we will see, a contemporary of Piaget ’s had more to say about social influences on cognitive development. FIGURE 3.4 Theory of mind. Participants with a theory of mind recognize that the child in the story will look for the leftover chocolate in the blue cupboard, because the child is not aware of the mother’s switch of locations. theory of mind a recognition that other people base their behaviours on their own perspectives, not on information that is unavailable to them. CHAPTER 3 BIOLOGICAL AND COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT 64 Adolescence LEARNING OBJECTIVE 6 Summarize the major physical, cognitive and emotional changes that take place during adolescence. With the possible exception of the first couple of years of life, the amount of change that occurs during adolescence rivals that of any other developmental passage. Most crucially, puberty begins. In the cognitive sphere, adolescents dis- play features of both children and adults, and they begin to learn how to function independently. In this section, we will describe some key biological, cognitive and social transitions that characterize this dramatic period. Physical Development Pubert y refers to the physical devel- opment of primary and secondary sex characteristics (Herdt, 2010). Primary sex characteristics are the body struc- tures that have to do specifically with the reproductive system, including growth of the testes and the ovaries.

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  HDEV

  • Spencer Rathus(Author)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  216 PART FOUR: Adolescence and Early Adulthood Hero Images Inc./Alamy Stock Photo 11 Adolescence: Physical and Cognitive Development LEARNING OUTCOMES After studying this chapter, you will be able to. . . 11-1 Describe the key events of puberty and their relationship to social development 11-2 Discuss health issues in adolescence, focusing on the causes of death, on eating disorders, and on substance use 11-3 Discuss adolescent cognitive development and the key events of Piaget’s stage of formal operations 11-4 Describe gender differences in cognitive abilities 11-5 Discuss Kohlberg’s theory of moral development in adolescence 11-6 Discuss the roles of the school in adolescence, focusing on dropping out 11-7 Discuss work experience during adolescence 217 CHAPTER 11: Adolescence: Physical and Cognitive Development 11-1 PUBERTY: THE BIOLOGICAL ERUPTION Puberty is a stage of development characterized by reaching sexual maturity and the ability to reproduce. The onset of adolescence coincides with the advent of puberty. Puberty is con-trolled by a feedback loop involving the hypo-thalamus, pituitary gland, the gonads—the ovaries in females and the testes in males—and hormones. The hypothalamus sig-nals the pituitary gland, which, in turn, releases hormones that control physical growth and the gonads.

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  Child, Adolescent and Family Development

  • Phillip T. Slee, Marilyn Campbell, Barbara Spears(Authors)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  2. There are global discontinuities in cognition across stages – they cite evidence that in fact there are early precursors to abilities. 3. Monolithic cognitive growth – in fact there is wide individual variation in development and competencies. Thelen and Smith ( 1994 , p. 22) note that ‘cognitive development does not look like a marching band; it looks more like a teeming mob’. Adolescent language development As noted by Nippold ( 2000 , 2006 ), while it was once believed (and still is, accord-ing to some textbooks in developmental psychology!) that language development is largely completed by late childhood, it is now better understood that there is signif-icant growth in language during the adolescent years. Advances in cognitive neuro-science have also highlighted the ‘plasticity’ of language development extending into adulthood, with Neville and Bavelier ( 1998 , p. 250) noting: ‘Studies of children have documented dynamic shifts in cerebral organization over the course of language acqui-sition’. Whitmire ( 2000 ) observes that adolescence is a time of considerable physio-logical and psychological change (see Chapters 18 and 20). Language development becomes increasingly sophisticated and refined during the adolescent years. Nippold ( 2000 ) provides a useful framework for considering adolescent language development under the headings of ‘pragmatics’, ‘syntax’ and ‘semantics’. Pragmatics Rinaldi ( 2000 ) observes that the attempt to distinguish the semantics of language from that aspect of language open to interpretation has a long history. McTear and Conti-Ramsden ( 1992 ) identified the field of ‘pragmatics’ as concerning the individu-al’s abilities to interpret meaning taking into account the linguistic and non-linguistic content. There is a significant body of evidence to suggest that during adolescence sig-nificant changes occur in the nature and manner in which language is used.

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  Handbook of Adolescent Development

  • Sandy Jackson, Luc Goossens, Sandy Jackson, Luc Goossens(Authors)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Taylor & Francis

    (Publisher)

  But processes are supported by biologically innate mechanisms which produce transformations at every period of age. In the Piagetian view, these mechanisms correspond to equilibration. But connectionist models, as well, have tried to identify the basic developmental laws or learning rules. On the neuronal level, mechanisms correspond to the innate properties of neuronal activity, considered at various timescales (see Hebb’s law). On the psychological level, the same mechanisms may be approached in more descriptive terms through developmental transformations such as integration, differentiation, generalization, or abstraction. But there is a bi-univoque mapping between these two levels of empirical investigation (neural and psychological). Moreover, if developmental mechanisms are identified, they have to be effective and recognized at every level of development, even though they concern different levels of skill.

  Developmental factors stress what may release the mechanisms that in turn produce developmental processes. Factors comprise common incitements from social and physical worlds but also specific influences and experiences which induce inter-individual variability. However, this inter-individual variability must be understood more as an orientation towards activities in specific domains than as true differences in cognitive capacity.

  4. Conclusion

  As a whole, it is convenient to conclude that most adolescents acquire abstract cognitive skills in the contexts they experience, with no immediate generalization through other contexts. As a consequence, cognitive assessment of gereral stages is intrinsically doubtful (Lehalle & Mellier, 1984). One can be sure of the competence if an individual presents some evidence of a given cognitive level in a specific situation. But we cannot decide the absence of competence if an individual fails to present the appropriate level in a specific situation because it remains always possible that he/she could present this level in a more familiar context or situation.

  In sum, the previously quoted “Calvinist principle” (Fischer et al., 1990) allows an optimist view on cognitive construction and competence among adolescents: when an adolescent fails a cognitive task, it does not mean that he/she should fail all the tasks from the same cognitive level.

  References

  Adelson, J. (1975). The development of ideology in adolescence. In S. E. Dragastin, & G. H. Elder (Eds.), Adolescence in the life cycle

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  Visualizing the Lifespan

  • Jennifer Tanner, Daniel Bellack, Colleen MacQuarrie(Authors)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  Although the media have focused on the decline in physical fitness of Canadian youth, research has shown that many teens are motivated to strengthen their mus- cles in order to compete against their peers in athletics (Ricciardelli, McCabe, Holt, & Finemore, 2003). Partici- pating in team sports is an important context for both physical and cognitive development. 1. How does pubertal timing affect psychosocial functioning? 2. What adolescent behaviours are linked to changes in grey and white matter? 3. What are some potential consequences of asynchronous physical development? 4. Why are there sex differences in muscle and fat tissue development? Cognitive Development LEARNING OBJECTIVES 1. Describe Piaget’s stage of formal operations. 2. Compare Elkind’s view of adolescent egocentrism with Piaget’s preoperational egocentrism. 3. Explain how adolescents make decisions, especially about risky situations. s we are learning, adolescents face dramatic changes to their bodies that affect every facet of their lives. They must try to make sense of these changes, and of the choices, challen- ges, and risks that characterize this period of the lifespan (Kuhn, 2009). What cognitive processes help teens cope with their new bodies and new sense of autonomy? Piaget’s Formal Operational Stage How do you explain a type of thinking that requires that very type of thinking in order to fully understand it? Sound complicated? That is exactly the challenge Piaget faced while creating his formal operational stage of cognitive development. As they enter ado- lescence, some children begin to think in a more abstract way, a defining characteristic of formal operational thought. Abstract reasoning Central to understanding Piaget’s stage of A formal operations is the concept of abstract thinking, or the ability to think about possible situations, ideas, and objects that are not immediately present or obvious. Piaget extends conservation of objects to a conservation of rea- soning and logic.

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  The Adolescent

  An Educational Perspective

  • Eldrie Gouws, Nicky Kruger(Authors)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Butterworth-Heinemann

    (Publisher)

  Formal-operational thought The educator should be aware of the existence of individual differences between adolescents, and that it cannot be assumed that all 15-year olds are on the same cognitive level. Remember at all times that the adolescent may be capable of formal-operational thought on one day, only to lapse back The Cognitive Development of the Adolescent 7 1 to the concrete-operational phase the very next day. This means that the educator cannot simply sit back and wait for all the adolescents in his or her class to reach the formal-operational phase and then continue with his or her teaching. Teaching should start from concrete considerations, build-ing up where applicable to more abstract reasoning. This is reflected in many teaching programmes, including some devised for mathematics and science, which begin with experimental, practical aspects before deductive work is attempted (Child 1992). It is important to expose adolescents to a variety of experiences in order to promote their development of a capacity for flex-ible, versatile thinking. The educator must be careful not to force his or her views on adolescents. Verbalisation is very important because verbal interaction between adoles-cents and educators helps adolescents to assign meaning to their life world. The educator must pay due attention to this matter. There should also be some amount of discovery learning so that students can learn to solve problems on their own. The teacher must provide learning material that is interesting and challenging, and that sustains pupils' curiosity as they search for solutions (Mwamwenda 1989). Educators must also provide abundant opportunities for adolescents to engage in social interaction since they are helped by this means to rid them-selves of their egocentrism and to learn that people with different opinions from their own may be right while they may be wrong. Being brought to this realisation stimulates their cognitive development (Monteith et al 1988).

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