Topic 6: Cognitive Development

among Adolescents
 Learning Outcomes

At the end of the lesson, students are able to:

• Explain the formal operational thinking process
among adolescents
• Relate formal operational thinking to egocentrism
among adolescents
• Summarize cognitive developmental factor in
influencing teaching and learning.
Wouldn’t you love to know what
he’s thinking?
 It was once accepted that because
babies cannot speak, then they must
not think.
Piaget’s theory focuses on how people think
rather than what they think.

Piaget believed that children play an active

role in their cognitive development.
 Part 1: Cognitive Development
• Cognitive changes at adolescence launch children
from the world of “What is” into the universe of
“What if” (Hughes, 2002)

• Adolescents a (11-12 yrs and onwards) are

thinking at the Formal Operational Stage
(Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development)

• They have the capacity to integrate abstract

concepts and coordinate a number of mental
processes.
• The most important change that occur in this stage is
the shift from the real to the possible
* As compared to children who can only reason logically
about people, places, and things that are tangible and
concrete, adolescents can:
- think about things they have never experienced (what it
might have been like to be a millionaire)
- generate ideas about events that never happened (what
would the economy of Malaysia be like today if the
government took the BMF loan during the period of
recession)
- make predictions about hypothetical or future events
(What would happen to the crime rate in Malaysia if the
death penalty is banned in Malaysia)
Key characteristics of formal operational
thinking:

a. Deductive/Propositional logic
b.Scientific Reasoning
c. Combinatorial Reasoning,
d.Reasoning about Probabilities and
Proportions
a.Propositional Logic
•involves the ability to draw a logical inferences or conclusion
based on the relationship between a set of statements or
premises following pattern such as “if a then b”.
Premise:
“all students who get above a 3.5 GPA are placed in advanced education
courses.”
- If Lily gets above 3.5 (If a…)
- She is therefore taking the advanced education courses (…then b).
- Lily is not in advanced education courses (if not b)
- She must not be getting above 3.5 (…then not a).
• Used in solving algebra problems: (x + y = 11; if y = 1, then x = __?)
• Essential for reasoning about scientific problems (for classification)
b. Scientific Reasoning

• Adolescents are more systematic in their

scientific reasoning (as compared to children):
they exhaustively test all conceived
hypothesis, control certain variables (rule out
those that prove to be wrong) to see if a
change occurs, and systematically keep track
of results.

• Piaget called the ability to generate and test

hypotheses in logical and systematic manner
hypothetico-deductive thinking.
The Pendulum Task (Piaget’s experiment)
- A child is given a rod from which strings of different length are
suspended.
- Different size weights can be attached to each string.
- The child is shown how the pendulum works, then asked
which of the 4 factors (length of string, weigh of object, force of
push, or height of drop) is responsible for the speed at which the
pendulum swings.
Steps:
-Generate hypothesis/make prediction.
-Test hypothesis (concrete operational thinkers fail to test all
possible combination, they may change more than 1 variable at
the same time because they do not approach the problem
systematically. In contrast, formal operational thinkers typically
think about all possible combinations of variables (16 different
combinations).
Answer: A short string makes the pendulum go faster, regardless
of all other factors.
c.Combinatorial Reasoning
The ability to think about multiple causes or to consider more than
one relevant factor regarding the same problem.

Experiment: combine liquids from different bottles with the g liquid to

create a yellow solution (liquids from from 2 bottles + g = yellow, liquid
from one of the bottle has no effect, and liquid from a fourth bottle can
turn the solution clear).

- Children: take a drop of liquid from each bottle and combine it with
the g liquid one by one. If nothing happens, they think they have
exhausted all posibilities.

- Adolescents: go beyond that, they combine the liquids systematically

(1+2+g, 1+3+g, 1+4+g, etc.), until they find the combination that turns
the solution yellow when it is added. Some adolescents may even go
on to speculate about which liquids would combine to turn the solution
clear again.
- exercise: think of a few ways of making sandwich with different types
of ingredients
d. Reasoning about Probabilities and Proportions
Quantities vs Ratio

Experiment:
• A bubble gum machine with 30 red balls and 50 yellow balls.
Question: if a child insert a coininto the machine, which colour
gumball is most likely to come out?
• Children: yellow, because there are more yellow than red balls.
• Adolescents: yellow, because there is higher proportion of yellows
to reds.
• Formal operational thinkers will mentally represent the problem
differently, they will think in terms of the ratio of red to yellow
balls. A ratio is not something a person can see, , it is an inferred
relationship between two quantities. This example illustrates how
these two types of thinkers may answer a question the same way,
but they use qualitatively different system of logic.
Advantages of formal operational thinking:
- Become better arguers and problem solvers
- Abstract formal-operational thinking is necessary for success in higher
school, colleges, and universities
- Important skills for writers, lawyers, politicians, teachers, etc.

How do teachers encourage adolescents’ growth in deductive

reasoning and other reasoning skills?
- Provide adolescents with clear, accurate, and complete
information.
- Help them to explore a variety of positions and hypothetical
questions.
- Give them opportunities to solve problems and reason scientifically
- Whenever possible, teach broad concepts, not just facts, using
materials and ideas relevant to the students’ lives.
- Ensure their exposure to a wide variety of environmental input.
- Be patient with the argumentativeness that , more often than not,
will accompany this process.
 Part 2: Social Cognitive Development among
Adolescents
• The improvement in reasoning activities has an impact on the
developing view of the self.
• Adolescents become egocentric (very focused on their own
ideas, beliefs, and attitudes).
• They some times become confused and are unable to
differentiate their own thoughts from others’.

• Egocentrism among adolescents

- Several mental processes unique to this developmental phase
contribute to self-absorbed behavioural choices such as logic
and idealism, personal myth, the invincibility fable, and the
imaginary audience
a.Logic and Idealism
•Unlike children who perceive abolute ‘rights’ and
‘wrong’, adolescents apply such perceptions within their
new found logic which may be different from what the
real world is.
e.g.: an adolescent may say: “ I am a pedestrian, I have
the right of way. It is logical that cars should stop.”
What seems to be “logical” might not be logical until it
takes into account the realities and complexities of the
world as it is including human frailties that might prevent
a driver from avoiding hitting him/her.
• They frequently band together behind idealistic
causes, attempting to save the world with picketing
and other demonstrations of loyalty to “obviously”
logical causes.

• The increase in altruistic feelings and behaviours

observed during adolescents may be partially feuled
by such egocentric and idealistic perceptions and
dedication.

• Only through a number of serious collisions with

reality do adolescents adapt their logic to include
consideration of the world as it is, and design their
strategies in a manner to get results.
b. Personal Myth and Invincibility Fable

• “nobody would dare to run me over. With my

unique thinking and experience, Ii’m too special and
important to be lost.”

• They create personal myth, perceiving themselves

as unique and destined for greatness. Personal
myth provides impetus for their idealistic goals.
e.g.: fantasize about the future endeavors such as
personally finding the cure for AIDS, becoming a
movie star, and making a billion dollars.
• Invincibility: they are so special, in fact, if they were
hit by a car it probably wouldn’t do serious damage.
This is one reason why they are more likely to take
ill-advised risks is that they truly do not believe that
bad things could happen to them such as
experiencing a drug overdose, be killed in an
accident, or getting pregnant. Even late in
adolescence, teens continue to unrealistically
calculate that they will experience more desirable
and fewer undesirable events than will others.
c. Imaginary Audience
• The feeling that everyone is watching, and the belief that others are
analyzing them: “Everyone noticed that I wore this shirt twice this week.”
“the whole class thought my answers was dumb.”

• The social imperfections can be devastating if ‘everyone is watching.

Luckily, this feelings of being ‘on stage’ seems to peak in early
adolescence (14 or 15), although in unfamiliar situations we may still feel
our mistakes are being noticed.

• The predominant impact of the imaginary audience is extreme self-

consciousness. E.g.: Adolescents may spend hours preparing their
physical appearance for an event, certain that they will be under so much
public scrutiny that every hair out place, clothing brand label, and facial
blemish will be noticed and judged.
•The personal myth, invincibility fable, and
imaginary audience are prominent during the
middle school years, then slowly recede over the
course of adolescence and young adulthood
(Lapsley et al., 1988).

•The data adolescents collect while interacting with

their worlds provide much of the reality testing
that will eventually alter their self-perceptions.

“The End”