Chapter 15: Cognitive Development in Adolescence
Piaget’s Theory: The Formal Operational Stage

Formal operational stage: ~age 11, develop capacity for
abstract, systematic, scientific thinking; no longer need require
concrete things or events
Hypothetico-Deductive Reasoning
 Start with hypothesis/prediction about variables affecting an
outcome, then isolate and combine variables
 Possibility  reality now
o Recall: when younger, they start with reality in concrete
operational stage
 Piaget’s pendulum problem- bar holding strings of varying
lengths with objects of different weight attached; asked to figure
out what influence speed of pendulum swings
o Formal operational adolescents come up with 4 variables
and then test each variable separately to discover only
string length makes difference
 Length of string
 Weight of object hung
 How high the object is raised before released (*)
 Force of object being pushed (*)
o Concrete operational children cannot separate effects of
each variable; often fail to notice variables that are not
immediately suggested by concrete materials (*)
Propositional Thought
 Ability to evaluate the logic of verbal statements without
referring to real-world circumstances; adolescents no longer
need concrete evidence from world
Follow-up Research on Formal Operational Thought
 School-age children start to use hypothetico-deductive reasoning
but are less competent than adolescents; only able to in
simplified situations with no more than 2 possible variables
 Young children are unable to understand relations that
contradict real life situations
o “if dogs are bigger than elephants, and elephants are
bigger than mice, then dogs are bigger than mice”- young

children reason that it false because in real life elephants
are larger than dogs; can’t inhibit well-learned responses
o They fail to grasp logical necessity of propositional
reasoning- that accuracy of conclusions drawn from
premises rest on rules of logic, not on real-world
confirmation
Not all adults are capable of hypothetico-deductive tasks, many
have with logical necessity... why?
o Differing opportunities to solve hypothetical problems
 People are most likely to think abstractly and
systematically on tasks in which they have had
extensive guidance and practice in using such
reasoning
 Individuals in tribal and village societies, and
nonliterate societies have problem with
propositional thought
An Information-Processing View of Adolescent Cognitive
Development

Supported by brain development and experience, adolescents
show improvements in….
o Attention- more selective, focusing on relevant info, and
better adapted to changing demands of tasks
o Inhibition of irrelevant (supports attention) and welllearned responses (supports reasoning) in inappropriate
situations
o Strategies - effective, improving storage, representation,
retrieval of info
o Knowledge- eases strategy use
o Metacognition (awareness of thought)- leads to new
insights for effective strategies for learning and solving
problems
o Cognitive self-regulation= better moment-by-moment
monitoring, evaluation, and redirection of thinking
o Speed of processing capacity- more info can be held in
working memory; info can be complex
Scientific Reasoning: Coordinating Theory with Evidence
 Sometimes theories are not supported by evidence
 Children often blend theories and evidence into a single
representation of “the way things are”, ignoring conflicting
evidence or distort it in ways to be consistent with their theory
 Capacity to reason like a scientist (theories need to be supported
by evidence to be true) improve with age
How Scientific Reasoning Develops
 Greater working-memory capacity permits theories and effects
of variables to be compared at once
 Scientific reasoning is strongly influenced by years of schooling
o Increasing exposure to complex problems and
instruction of features of scientific reasoning
 Through metacognitive understanding- ability to think about
theories, deliberately isolate variables, and actively seek
disconfirming evidence
 Through metacognitive capacity to evaluate one’s objectivity- to
be fair-minded rather than show self-serving bias (applying logic
more effectively to ideas they doubt than to ideas they favour)
Consequences of Adolescent Cognitive Changes
Self-Consciousness and Self-Focusing
 Imaginary audience- belief that they are the focus on everyone
else’s attention and concern, become extremely self-conscious
and try to avoid embarrassment, belief that everyone is
monitoring their performance
o Can have positive, protective functions- reflects value of
holding onto relationships even as they struggle to
separate from parents and establish an independent
sense of self
 Personal fable- belief that others are observing and thinking
about them, develop an inflated opinion of their own importance,
that they are special and unique
o Predicts self-esteem and overall positive adjustment in
coping with challenge of adolescence
o But can have negative impacts
 Focusing on distinctiveness of one’s own
experience may interfere with forming close,
rewarding relationships= decrease social support
Can contribute to risk-taking behaviours because
of their sensation-seeking personality and
reduced sense of vulnerability
 ie. more sexual risks, drugs, delinquent
acts
Not a new form of egocentrism; rather, they are an outgrowth of
advances in perspective taking


Idealism and Criticism
 Adolescents’ constructions of ideal worlds and grand visions
conflict with adults’ greater realism, creating tension between
parent and child
 Teenage idealism and criticisms are advantageous bc they have a
greater capacity to work for social change and form positive and
lasting relationship s when they can see people as having
strengths and weaknesses
Decision Making
 Teens perform less well than adults in planning and decision
making, requires inhibition of emotion and impulses to think
rationally
 Steps to good decision making
1. Identify pros and cons of each alternative
2. Assess likelihood of various outcomes
3. Evaluate if chosen goals were met
4. If not met, learn from mistake and making better future
decision
 Adolescents, more often than adults, fall back on well-learned
intuitive judgments, “feel-good”behaviours, and addressing
short- term over long-term goals when making decisions
 Efforts to choose best decisions may break down because of
increasing number of decisions in adolescence
Handling Consequences of Teenagers’ New Cognitive Capacities
 Sensitivity to public criticism- refrain from finding fault with
adolescent in front of others
 Exaggerated sense of personal uniqueness- acknowledge
adolescent’s unique characteristic
 Idealism and criticism- respond patient to their grand
expectations and critical remarks; help them see all people are
blends of virtues and imperfections

Difficulty making everyday decisions- refrain from deciding for
them, model effective decision making, offer suggestions about
pros and cons, learning from poor choices
Sex Differences in Mental Abilities
Girls
Verbal Abilities
- Score higher on tests of verbal
ability
- Increased advantage in reading
and writing achievement
- Benefit from a biological
advantage and more verbal
stimulation
- Differences in literacy skills is a
contributing factor to widening
gender gap in college enrollment
Boys
Mathematical Abilities
- Start outperforming girls at early
adolescence, when math concepts
become more abstract and less
spatial
- Show advantage in science when
problems become more complex
- But gap is small, and has
diminished over 30 years
- Heredity, social pressures, and
parental attitudes are contributing
factors
Language Development
Vocabulary and Grammar
 Add variety of abstract words to their vocabularies; improve in
clarity and accuracy
 Master sarcasm and irony
 Understand figurative language
o Proverbs are especially challenge; used to comment,
advise, warn and encourage
 Use more elaborate grammatical constructions- longer sentences
with more subordinate clauses
o Perspective-taken skill improved though persuasive
speaking and writing, more connecting words used (ie.
moreover)
 More effectively analyze and correct their grammar;
grammatically accurate written expression is best learned in
writing contexts
Pragmatics
 Improved capacity to adapt language style to social context
 Teens are more likely than school-age children to practice what
they want to say in an expected situation, review what they say,
and figure out how they could say it better
Learning in School
School Transitions
 With each school change, grades decline
o Tighter academic standards
o High school- less personal attention, more whole-class
instruction, less chance to participate
o Feel less academically competent, liking and motivation
for school declines
 Girls are more worrisome than boys
o Self-esteem drops upon entering middle school
 Same time as life changes- puberty and dating
o Feel lonelier and more anxious in high school
 Added strains (family disruption, poverty, low parental
involvement, high parental conflict, learned helplessness)
increase risk for self-esteem and academic difficulties
 To help them adjust to school transitions:
o Support from parents, teachers, peers
 Parental involvement, monitoring, gradual
autonomy granting, emphasis on mastery than
good grades
o Those with close friends able to sustain friendship across
transition have increased social integration and academic
motivation in new school
o Extracurricular involvement
Academic Achievement
 Child-rearing styles
o Authoritative parenting= higher grades
 Joint parent-adolescent decision making
 Parent involvement in adolescent’s education
 Parent-school partnerships
o High-achieving students typically have parents who
evaluate child’s progress, communicate with teacher,
evaluate if classes are challenging and well-taught


Peer influences
o Important role; teens tend to chose friends who share
same values (ie. Academic achievement values)
o Academically high-performing friends may also avoid
drugs, engage in responsible behavior, participate in
extracurriculars
School characteristics
o Environments should be responsive to growing cognitive,
emotional and social needs
o Classroom learning experiences (584), tracking(585)
Dropping Out
 ~8% of U.S. 13-24 year olds drop out of high school and remain
without diploma or GED
 Rate higher for boys, particularly high among low-SES ethnic
minorities, especially Native-American and Hispanic teens
 Factors related to dropping out (table on 588)
o Student characteristics
o Family
o School and community
 Prevention strategies
o Remedial instruction and counseling that offer
personalized attention
o High-quality vocational education
o Efforts to address factors in students’ lives related to
leaving school early
o Participation in extracurricular activities
Vocational Development
Selecting a Vocation: Phases (Gottfredson, Super)
Fantasy
Tentative
Realistic
Early and middle childhood
 Fantasize career options dependent on their
preferences, familiarity, glamour, excitement
Ages 11-16
 Based on interests, then abilities (personal and
educational requirements) and values
Late teens-early 20s
 Narrow options; exploration- gathering info
about possibilities that match their personal
characteristic
 Crystallization- focus on general vocational
category before settling on single occupation
Factors Influencing Vocational Choice
 Personality
o People are attracted to occupations that complement
their personalities (Holland)
 Investigative person, enjoys working with ideas,
likely scientific occupation
 Social, like interacting with people, gravitates
towards human services
 Realistic, prefers real-world problems and work
with objects, tend to choose mechanics
 Artistic, emotional and high in need for individual
expression, looks towards artistic field
 Conventional person, likes well-structured tasks
and values material possessions and social status,
business fields
 Enterprising person, adventurous, persuasive,
strong leader, drawn to sales, supervisory
positions, or politics
 Family influences
o Strongly correlated with parents’ jobs and SES
o Higher SES parents have access to important information
about education and work, and connections
 Promote curiosity and self-direction- required for
high-status careers
Lower SES emphasize conformity and obedience
Parenting practices also shape work-related preferences
Parents can still foster high aspirations; encouragements
to do well in school and toward high-status occupations
Teachers
o College-bound teens tend to have closer relationships
with teachers than do other students- likely to foster high
career aspirations
o Students with academic and behavioural problems
generally have neither family nor teach supports
o Teachers can offer encouragement, act as role models
Gender stereotypes
o Although women are entering and excelling in maledominated professions, majority remain in less-wellpaid, traditionally feminine professions
o Ability cannot account for sex differences… it’s the
gender-stereotyped messages!
 Recall: although girls are better in reading and
writing, gender gap favouring boys in math is
small
 Although girls earn higher grades than boys, they
reach sec. school less confident of their abilities,
more likely to underestimate achievement, and
less likely to express interest in math and science
 In college, women may worry about combining
highly demanding career with family
responsibilities
o
o
o
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Vocational Preparation of Non-College-Bound Adolescents
 ~1/3 of U.S. young people with high school diploma have no
plans to go to college
 Although they are more likely to find employment than youth
who drop out, they fewer work opportunities than high school
graduates of several decades ago
 U.S. non-college bound high school graduates are poorly
prepared for skilled businesses; limited to low-paid, unskilled
jobs, many unemployed