1. Cognitive Development
Adolescence
Cognitive Development

2. Abstract Reasoning Process
Information processing: Results from accumulated skills
Piaget: Formal operations result from maturation and experience
Characteristics
thinking in terms of possibilities
More flexible
Can suspend own point of view
Scientific reasoning

3. Comparison: Thought in Childhood and Adolescence
Limited to what is
Limited to present
Haphazard or rigid approaches to problem solving
Focuses on own view
Adolescent
Considers possibilities
considers abstract concepts and ideas
Planned testing of hypotheses
Considers perspectives of others

4. Major Features of Formal Operational Thinking
Hypothetico-deductive reasoning
Propositional reasoning
Isolation of variables
Proportional reasoning
Combinational reasoning

5. Formal Operations: Hypthetico-Deductive Reasoning
Starting point - general theory
Deduce hypotheses or predictions
Begins with possibilities

6. Formal Operations: Isolation of Variables
Determine causality
Keep all factors constant except one
Does “isolated” factor by itself make a difference?
Relies on hypothetico-deductive reasoning

7. Example: Piaget’s Pendulum Problem
What causes the pendulum to swing faster or slower?
Force of push
Size of weight
Height of drop
Length of string

8. Formal Operations: Propositional Thought
Evaluate logic of propositions without reference to the “real world”
Truth value of the proposition
Requires language-based systems of representation
Verbal reasoning about abstractions

9. Examples of Propositional Reasoning
Babysitter’s dilemma
Garden bug problem
“True, false, or Impossible to Judge”
Syllogisms
All suns are stars.
All stars are purple.
Therefore all suns are purple.

10. Formal Operations: Proportional Reasoning
Relative or porportional equivalence
Mathematical reasoning
Semantic proportions - analogies
Top : bottom as Head : foot
Start : finish as Near : (away, travel, far)
Yesterday : today as Before : (now, then, after)
Noon : Time as West (direction, sunset, east)

11. Formal Operations: Combinational Reasoning
Determine all the possible combinations
Systematic approach
Example: coin problem

12. Research Evidence
Ability to solve abstract reasoning problems: Younger children limited
Approach: Younger children are less systematic
Not all adults reach formal operational stage
More likely to apply abstract reasoning in areas of expertise

13. Consequences of Formal thought
Adolescent egocentrism (David Elkind)
Different from “egocentrism”
Early childhood - limited ability to take perspectives of others
Adolescence - “unrefined” formal operations - imagining the perspectives of others on “overdrive”

14. Adolescent Egocentrism: Imaginary Audience
Center stage - others are paying as much attention to me as I am to myself
able to take into account thoughts of others
Fail to distinguish personal concern with reactions of those around them
Examples 1) “everyone will notice ” 2) Costume party

15. Adolescent Egocentrism: Personal Fable
Inflated opinion of importance
See one’s self as totally unique
Examples: “You can’t possibly understand how I feel!”

16. Adolescent Egocentrism: Invincibility Fable
Protection - “Nothing bad can happen to me”
Risk taking
Not that teens don’t understand consequences. They simply believe they’ll be the exception

17. Adolescent Egocentrism: Apparent Hypocrisy
Behavior seems hypocritical
Closer examination reveals teens are applying rules to others and not to themselves
Example

18. Adolescent Egocentrism: Pseudostupidity
At first glance behavior appears incredibly “stupid”
closer look reveals teens can get lost in “all the possibilities” and miss the obvious
Example

19. Other Consequences of Formal Thought
Argumentative behavior
Debate
Idealism
Criticism
Planning and decision-making