COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT IN
ADOLESCENCE
Piaget’s theory suggests that teens must organize
their worlds to make sense out of it. They set up
categories and find relationships between the
categories of experience.
 Schema-a concept or framework within
one’s mind that functions to organize
information and new experiences. Two
processes serve to change these concepts:
 Assimilation vs. accommodationassimilation adds new material to intact
schema, broadening them without changing
them. Accommodation occurs when the new
information is so different it forces a new
schema to be developed to take it in.
 Equilibration-new information puts us into
disequilibration, feeling uncomfortable out
of the status quo. This feeling of discomfort
motivates us to understand the world in a
different way, in order to return to
equilibrium. The new equilibrium represents
a more sophisticated mode of thought.
Stages of Cognitive Development-Operations
(Logic)
 Sensorimotor-Birth to 2 yrs. When knowedge
comes through the senses and locomotion and
these varied experiences become coordinated. It
begins with reflexes, and ends when symbolic
thought begins- language.
 Preoperational-2-7 yrs. As children represent
the world with words and make-believe. Fantasy
and make-believe is important to development.
 Concrete operational-7 – 11 yrs. Conservation
& classification skills come in as children begin
to use logic (operations) to solve problems in
their heads. Conservation means the ability to
understand that if nothing is added or taken away
from an item, even if it changes form, it’s the
same amount. This concept is essential for
mastering math. Classification is when children
organize items into groups, hierarchies and
classes. You will notice children this age
developing collections as they try to master this.
 Formal operational- puberty into adulthood as
logic extends to abstract concepts, future, ideals.
Hypothetical-deductive reasoning- the ability
to think like a scientist, to formulate hypotheses
and test them in a deductive fashion.
o Early formal operational thought-they
have far-ranging thought into all the
possibilities, much fantasy thought without a
lot of connection to reality (Examples are
seen in their concepts of a possible career)
o Late formal operational thought-thought
returns to a greater balance as real issues are
integrated with ideals. Transition into this
level of thinking is not as dependent on age
as experience and life consequences. There
is also a higher form of thinking in the areas
the teen has most experience. Expertise
allows for more elaborate thought.
Piaget’s theory related to Education
He stresses that children construct knowledge
through their own experiences and experimentation.
Teachers need to listen to teen’s ideas to understand
what they know and to structure educational
experiences that allow them to explore what they
have interest in. Education should be set up to meet
individual needs more specifically. Also it should not
be so formal and abstract that those teens who
haven’t reached this level of thought will be
handicapped.
Critique of Piaget’s theory- he underestimated their
abilities at the ages he set. Levels of thought can be
trained. So a child in one stage can be trained to think
at the higher level. Piaget believed development
leads learning. The child must be ‘ready’ to learn a
concept and that depends on natural developmental
markers. Culture also makes a difference in what
skills are practiced and what sort of thinking that is.
Some cultures have little formal thought. NeoPiagetians are undertaking to revise Piaget to
emphasize how children process information and
retrieve it later.
Vygotsky’s theory-stressed that knowledge is
collaborative (and best learned in cooperation with
others) and comes through various environments and
experiences.
 Zone of Proximal development-the difference
between what a child can do independently and
what s/he can do with some aid by a more skilled
person.
 Scaffolding-this is Vygotsky’s concept of
changing the level of support, aid as the child
masters aspects of the task. With less guidance
the child develops self-competence beliefs.
 Cognitive apprenticeship-when an expert
stretches the learners’ understanding and use of
new skills. The key is in gauging the learner’s
mastery and readiness for new challenges.
 Tutoring-a specific cognitive apprenticeship
between expert and novice learner. It benefits
both, as it gives the teacher confidence and new
skills. This is especially good with peer tutors.
 Cooperative learning-students working in small
groups to help one another learn. The challenge
is evaluation- offering a group reward to
motivate everyone to participate, yet hold
members accountable for specific aspects of
project. Vygotsky believes that learning can
lead development.
 Reciprocal teaching- students taking turns in
leading discussions in small groups. This
concept transforms classrooms into communities
of learners. It encourages more critical thinking.
Constructivism-realizes that children actively
construct knowledge through their interaction and
experimentation. They do this individually (cognitive
constructivist) as well as socially (social
constructivist). As such, teachers function as
facilitators of knowledge building.
 Cognitive constructivist approach
 Social constructivist approach
Information-Processing View-a framework for
thinking about memory and retention of knowledge.
 Thinking-processing new information
 Change mechanisms-how we manipulate new
information as it comes in to us. 4 processes:
o Encoding- transforming information into a
symbolic code that can be sent to memory.
o Automaticity- gaining such familiarity with
information or processes that they can be
processed with little or no cognitive effort.
Teens have an advantage in this area, as well
as storage capacity.
o Strategy construction-discovery of new
procedures for processing information.
o Self-modification-assessing strategies for
effectiveness, throwing some out and
tweaking others to be more useful.
Attention –focusing of mental effort. It is selective
and shifting. Essential for learning new things.
Nothing is learned that is not attended to.
Memory-retention of information over time.
o Short-term memory-information is limited (5-9
chunks) and brief (30 sec.) but can be used.
o Long-term memory-vast and relatively
permanent storage system. Essential for
creativity. It expands broadly during childhood
and into adolescence.
Strategies and control processes-activities that
learners use consciously to enhance memoryorganization is especially useful.
Decision making-with age comes greater freedom to
choose- relationships, career paths, jobs, beliefs.
Teens are better able to consider the consequences
and options available. So they make better decisions
as they gain experience in life. (We will see that other
aspects of teen thinking may undermine this, though)
Parents can facilitate this process by transferring
more autonomy to children as they age and show
greater self- responsibility. Letting teens live with the
consequences of their acts teaches more effectively.
Critical thinking-thinking reflectively and
evaluating evidence that is derived. The greater
knowledge teens hold and faster processing speed
they use, as well as abstract thinking processes allows
improvement in critical thinking skills. Unfortunately
schools don’t teach this skill very effectively.
The Jasper project is video adventures that help
teens learn to solve real-world math problems. These
adventures integrate social studies, math, science and
history in real-world scenarios. Students work
together to solve these problems and refine their
thinking.
Creative thinking- the ability to think in novel ways
and generate solutions to problems.
o Convergent thinking-produces one right answer
through a prescribed pattern (IQ test results)
o Divergent thinking-produces many answers to a
question and shows creativity in thinking.
Techniques to encourage creative thinkingbrainstorming solutions without judgment, offer
environments that encourage this thinking, let go and
let them function in their own way, limit external
reinforcers (bribes), use humor to foster free thinking,
expose them to creative people.
Metacognition –thinking about your thinking.
o Metacognitive knowledge-monitoring one’s
thought and adapting it as is useful.
o Metacognitive activity-using your awareness of
your best thinking skills to enhance solutiongeneration. Knowing tricks that allow you to
perform better in certain domains. Accessing
others’ skills by observation or interaction.
Teaching these skills and setting up practice
experiences to ingrain the skill.
Self-Regulatory Learning-self-generation and selfmonitoring of thoughts, feelings and behaviors to
achieve a goal.
o Goal Setting and planning- setting specific and
reasonable goals. Students who do this from an
internal motivation are more successful.
o Management of emotional makeup-awareness
of how one’s emotionality can block
effectiveness and developing strategies to
improve.
o Self-monitoring of the plan- monitoring
progress toward the goal.
o Revise strategies according to progress made
o Evaluate problems in learning and adapt
Psychometric/Intelligence view-individual
differences in intelligence that are measurable.
Intelligence is verbal ability, problem-solving skills,
ability to adapt and learn from life’s experiences.
Intelligence tests-were developed in France at the
turn of the last century to identify special-needs
students.
o Binet tests- used the concept of:
o Mental age which means one’s mental
development relative to others.
o Chronological age is your age in years.
o Intelligence quotient is produced by
dividing mental age by chronological age
and multiplying by 100. 100 is the average
intelligence as normed by these tests.
o Normal distribution-the bell curve showing
scores equally distributed along a continuum
with the majority of scores in the middle and
the fewest scores at the extremes of range.
Wechsler scales-also produce an overall IQ score,
but also yield separate verbal and performance IQs.
Theories of Multiple Intelligences-the idea that
intelligence is not a single entity but a combination of
specific abilities.
o Sternberg’s Triarchic theory states intelligence
comes in 3 forms:
o Analytical-the ability to analyze, judge,
evaluate, compare and contrast. High scores
here do well in direct-instruction classes.
o Creative- design, invent and imagine. Often
those high in creativity don’t conform to
rigid expectations or give the expected
answers so they are reprimanded.
o Practical- ability to use, apply, put into
practice. May have excellent social skills,
common sense so they do better in life than
in school. Many jobs demand a combination
of skills so teachers should instruct in all
areas.
Gardner’s eight types of intelligence
o Verbal
o Mathematical/scientific
o Spatial
o Bodily-kinesthetic
o Musical
o Interpersonal
o Intrapersonal
o Naturalist
Emotional Intelligence- a form of social intelligence
that involves the ability to monitor one’s own and
others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among
them, and use this information to guide one’s
thinking and actions. Often this level of personal
understanding correlates better with life success than
specific knowledge base.
Issues in Intelligence
 Nature and nurture-the complexity of this
interrelationship offers a rich research area.
 Ethnicity and culture- are tests inherently
biased against students from other than the
majority culture? Early tests were very
ethnocentric and skewed against minorities.
 Culture-fair tests were designed to be free of
cultural bias to try to test minorities more
accurately. Traditionally African-Americans
average 10-15 points lower than whites.
Environment has a great deal to do with this,
since poverty is greater in this population and
that alone impacts cognitive development.
 Misuse of IQ tests-test scores can be used to
reinforce racial or age biases. They should not be
used as the sole judge of competence. Consider
the specific test skills and strengths represented,
not just the overall score.
Social Cognition-the ways people conceptualize
their social world- what they attend to, the
relationships they develop, the groups they interact
with, how they think about themselves related to
others.
Adolescent Egocentrism-the heightened selfconsciousness of adolescence.
 Imaginary audience- the belief everyone is
watching me- so the desire to be noticed, the
feeling they are ‘on stage’, even though the irony
is that all their peers are as self-focused as they
are, so nobody’s watching. Super awareness of
self, flaws, looks, failures. May involve
attention-getting behavior.
 Personal fable-teens’ sense of uniqueness, that
no one has ever felt what they feel, no one can
understand. It takes awhile to develop an
understanding of others as separate from self:
Perspective taking-the ability to assume another
person’s perspective and understand his/her thoughts
and feelings. Selman’s stage theory described the
evolution of perspective taking through clear stages.
Competence in perspective taking is a social plus and
often allows children to be more popular and
accepted.
Implicit personality theory-the layman’s concept of
personality. Adolescents are more likely to look
beyond surface traits to discover deeper causes of
personality. They also integrate past information
about a person with current behavior to try to
understand the whole person in context of the
environment. They also understand it is often
unconscious what people do and why they do it.
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT IN
ADOLESCENCE
Piaget’s theory
 Schema
 Assimilation vs. accommodation
 Equilibration
Stages of Cognitive Development-Operations
 Sensorimotor
 Preoperational
Concrete
operational-conservation
&
classification
 Formal operational-hypotheticaldeductive reasoning
o Early formal operational thought
o Late formal operational thought
Piaget’s theory related to Education
Critique of Piaget’s theory
Vygotsky’s theory
 Zone of Proximal development
 Scaffolding
 Cognitive apprenticeship
 Tutoring
 Cooperative learning
 Reciprocal teaching
Constructivism
 Cognitive constructivist approach
 Social constructivist approach
Information-Processing View
 Thinking
 Change mechanisms
o Encoding
o Automaticity
o Strategy construction
o Self-modification
Attention
Memory
o Short-term memory
o Long-term memory
Strategies and control processes
Decision making
Critical thinking-the Jasper project
Creative thinking
o Convergent thinking
o Divergent thinking
Techniques to encourage creative thinking
Metacognition
o Metacognitive knowledge
o Metacognitive activity
Self-Regulatory Learning
o Goal Setting and planning
o Management of emotional makeup
o Self-monitoring of the plan
o Revise strategies according to progress
made
o Evaluate problems in learning and adapt
Psychometric/Intelligence view
Intelligence tests
o Binet tests
o Mental age
o Chronological age
o Intelligence quotient
o Normal distribution
Wechsler scales
Theories of Multiple Intelligences
o Sternberg’s Triarchic theory
o Analytical
o Creative
o Practical
Gardner’s eight types of intelligence
o Verbal
o Mathematical/scientific
o Spatial
o Bodily-kinesthetic
o Musical
o Interpersonal
o Intrapersonal
o Naturalist
Emotional Intelligence- a form of social
intelligence that involves the ability to monitor
one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to
discriminate among them, and use this
information to guide one’s thinking and actions.
Issues in Intelligence
 Nature and nurture
 Ethnicity and culture- Culture-fair tests
 Misuse of IQ tests
Social Cognition-the ways people conceptualize
their social world- what they attend to, the
relationships they develop, the groups they
interact with.
Adolescent Egocentrism-the heightened selfconsciousness of adolescence.
 Imaginary audience
 Personal fable
Perspective taking-the ability to assume
another person’s perspective and understand
his/her thoughts and feelings. Selman’s stage
theory.
Implicit personality theory-the layman’s
concept of personality.