Cognitive Development across
the Adolescent Years
Samuel Mathews, Ph.D.
School of Psychological and
Behavioral Sciences
The University of West Florida
Constructive Nature of Cognition
 The human mind incorporates experiences
into a unique interpretation based on:
– Goals and motives
– Perspective on the experience
– Prior knowledge and experiences
– Strategies and processes of thinking
Major Perspectives on Cognitive
Development
• Piaget’s Theory of “Genetic Epistemology”
– Stages of Development
– Constructive
– Equilibration (reaching equilibrium between individual
and demands of a task)
• Information Processing Theory
–
–
–
–
Active search for information
Constructive
Continuous development
Transformation, storage, and retrieval of information
Piagetian Perspective
• Concrete operations
– Late childhood
– Reasoning with concrete experiences, objects
and events
Piagetian—Concrete Operations
• Reversible operations
• Conservation (number, mass, volume)
• Decentration (>1 attribute considered)
• Release from egocentrism (others’
perspectives considered)
Piagetian—Formal Operational Thought
• Abstract—analyze experience for core structure
• Hypothetical—make predictions beyond
concrete experiences (moving to true scientific
reasoning)
• Logical—can extract logical relations and test
the validity of the logic regardless of the premise
(A=B, B=C, therefore A=C)
• Complex—use of metaphor and sarcasm
• Metacognition—knowing, knowing about
knowing, and thinking about thinking
Piagetian—Formal Operations
• Context dependent—context can create difficulty
in formal operational thought throughout
adulthood
• Achievement based on need for formal
operational thought within a setting
• Cultural differences typically based on cultural
bounds of the assessment and opportunities for
formal thought
Post-Formal Thought in Emerging Adulthood
• Pragmatism—consideration of social and
contextual factors in decision-making
• Dialectical Thought—examining
oppositional perspectives simultaneously
(thesis-antithesis)
• Reflective Judgment—Perry’s work:
– Dualism
– Relativism
– Commitment in relativism
Information Processing and
Cognitive Development
• Active search for information in our
environment to meet needs
• Constructive—creates unique
representations of information
• Flexible—multiple representations of the
same information are possible
Information Processing and
Cognitive Development
• Strategic—can function using intentional
strategies
• Limited capacity—system has limits in
duration and capacity without conscious
use of strategies
Key Developments across
Adolescence
• Executive Functions and Metacognition
– Monitoring—maintaining vigilance for
“breakdowns” or errors in cognitive tasks;
usually based on:
• Prior knowledge
• Predictions about “what comes next”
– Control—intentional acts to initiate, modify,
and terminate cognitive tasks and strategies
– Controlled/Automatic Processing—tasks that
are first effortful become automatic and occur
frequently without awareness
Knowledge base
• Declarative/Factual—knowing “what”
• Procedural/Strategic—knowing “how”
• Organization
– Schematic structures
– Association networks
– Flexible organizational schemes
• Expert/novice distinction(organization of
knowledge, representation of knowledge)
Executive Functions and
Metacognition
o Strategic thought—the intentional use of
planned and controlled procedures to
accomplish cognitive tasks (making
outlines, taking notes, highlighting and
making notes in the margins of texts, selftesting)
Executive Functions and
Metacognition
• Critical thought—mental strategies in
which the goals are to
– analyze arguments and assertions for logical
consistency and false premises
– maintain vigilance for bias in thinking
– critically consider the source of knowledge
(authority, faith, common sense, etc., vs.
scientific thought)
Vygotsky: Contextual Cognition
• Focused on collective and social approach
• Individual develops knowledge, skills and
strategies through:
– first interacting with other more skilled
individuals
– Transferring the knowledge, skills, and
strategies from intermental to intramental
• Language is the medium of transfer
Vygotsky: Contextual Cognition
• Strategies in educational contexts:
– Cooperative learning
– Guided practice
– Reciprocal teaching
– Reflection
• Zone of Proximal Development
– Distance between independent work and work
needing support of others
– Scaffolding provided by others
Decision Making
• Neurological Limitations—prefrontal and
frontal lobes
• Peer Influence—presence of peers is
related to risky decisions
• Behavioral Decision Theory:
– Identify choices; identify consequences;
evaluate each consequence; assess
likelihood; integrate information into a
decision
– Tendency to use the decision tree varies with
age, experience, and psychosocial context
Behavioral Changes and Cognitive
Development across Adolescence
• Question Authority based on equal
treatment, and social comparisons
• Express difficulty with arguments based
only on authoritarian power
• Question long standing ideology, religious
affiliation, and relationships
Behavioral Changes and Cognitive
Development across Adolescence
• Express and act on interests in broader
peer groups, wider range of activities
• Many join social causes and movements
• Focus in early adolescence is on personal
decision making in school and home
environments
Behavioral Changes and Cognitive
Development across Adolescence
• Pseudostupidity
– Perceived levels of complexity beyond that
that will lead to solutions
– Exploration of solution paths outside of logical
or pragmatic boundaries
– Perception of complex and malevolent
motives when none exist
– Attempts to narrow adolescents’ explorations
to plausible or feasible solutions seen as over
controlling
Behavioral Changes and Cognitive
Development across Adolescence
• Experience a new form of egocentrism
(focus on self)
– Imaginary Audience
• “everyone is looking at me and thinking about me”
• importance on personal appearance and merging
with the group
– Personal Fable
• Sense of uniqueness
• Sense of invulnerability or being invincible
• Heightened willingness to take risks
Critical Thinking in Adolescence
• Critical thinking:
– Volitional
– Goal directed
– Analytical
– Disposition
• Inclination
• Sensitivity
• Ability
• In the discussion questions that follow, in
small groups decide on two responses for
each item to share.
• In the final item, report the group’s
consensus.
Discussion Questions
• Identify one way in which critical thinking
was encouraged and one situation in which
CT was discouraged in your high school
experience.
• Think about your current experience at
UWF and identify one way CT is
encouraged and one way it is discouraged.
• Think about the information processing and
decision-making sections of the chapter.
How might CT be explained from those
perspectives.