Module 5.3: Cognitive Development in Adolescence

Question 1

Formal Operations

Answer 1

+ The highest level of cognitive development which adolescents enter according to Piaget
+ Adolescents move away from their reliance on concrete, real-world stimuli, and develop the capacity for abstract thought
+ They can now use symbols to represent other symbols, hidden messages, imagine possibilities, create hypotheses

Question 2

What age do adolescents typically begin to enter the formal operations stage?

Answer 2

Usually around 11 years old

Question 3

Hypothetical-Deductive Reasoning

Answer 3

+ Methodical, scientific approach to problem solving, and it characterizes formal operations thinking
+ Involves ability to develop, consider, and test hypotheses
+ Piaget attributed it to a combination of brain maturation and expanding environmental opportunities

Question 4

What does David Elkind say about adolescents?

Answer 4

According to David Elkind, the new way of thinking of adolescents, the way they look at themselves and their world, is as unfamiliar to them as their reshaped bodies, and they sometimes feel just awkward in its use

Question 5

Decision-Making Strategies in Adolescents

Answer 5

Adolescents can keep many alternatives in mind at the same time yet may lack effective strategies for choosing them

Question 6

Self-consciousness

Answer 6

adolescents can think about thinking – their own and the other people’s

Question 7

Imaginary Audience

Answer 7

a conceptualized “observer” who is concerned with a young person’s thoughts and behavior as he or she is

Question 8

What do adolescents tend to assume about what everyone is thinking of?

Answer 8

Adolescents often assume everyone is thinking about the same thing they are thinking about: themselves

Question 9

Personal Fable

Answer 9

+ Belief that they are special, their experience is unique, and they are not subject to the rules that govern the rest of the world
+ Underlies much risky, self-destructive behavior
+ Brain immaturity biases adolescent toward risky decision making

Question 10

What kind of thinking do adolescents become more skilled in?

Answer 10

Adolescents also become more skilled in social perspective-taking, the ability to tailor their speech to another person’s POV

Question 11

Fuzzy-Trace Theory Dual-Process Model

Answer 11

decision making is influenced by two cognitive systems: verbatim analytical and gist-intuitional, which operate in parallel