Adolescent Development CH 3

Schemes for Infants

based on sensory and motor processes such as sucking and grasping

Sensorimotor

learning how to coordinate the activities of the senses (such as watching an object as it moves across your field of vision) with motor activities (such as reaching out to grab the object)

Piagetian Approach

describes general changes in cognitive development

Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development

describes general changes in mental structures and problem-solving abilities that take place during childhood and adolescence

Metacognition

the capacity for "thinking about thinking" that allows adolescents and adults to reason about their thought processes and monitor them -with formal operations adolescents develop the capacity to think about thinking -first develops in adolescence, but it continues to develop in emerging adulthood and beyond

Hypothetical-Deductive Reasoning

- changes one variable while holding the other constant and tests the different possibilities systematically - (formal operations_

Pendulum Problem

- children and adolescents are shown a pendulum and asked to try to figure out what determines the speed at which the pendulum sways from side to side - Concrete operations- children approach problem w random attempts, often changing more than one variable at a time - formal operations- changes one variable while holding the other constant and tests the different possibilities systematically

Formal Operations Falls Into 2 Categories

-individual differences in the attainment of formal operations -cultural basis of adolescent cognitive development

Problems Piaget Assessed the Attainment of Formal Operations

-scientific- capacity to formulate hypotheses, test them systematically, and then make deductions on the basis of results -logical or applied reasoning- abstract thinking, complex thinking

Formal Operations

-stage most relevant to cognitive development in adolescence - allows adolescents to reason about complex tasks and problems involving multiple variables - the development of the ability to think scientifically and apply the rigor of the scientific method to cognitive task

Piaget: Age 7 to 11 Stage

Concrete Operations

Piaget: Age 11 and Reaches Completion 15-20

Formal Operations

Piaget: Age 2 to 7 Stage

Preoperational Stage

Piaget: First Two Years of Life Stage

Sensorimotor

Mental Structure

a person who thinks within a particular stage in one aspect of life should think within that stage in all other aspects of life as well because all thinking is part of the same mental structure

Cognitive development

changes in how adolescents and emerging adults think, how they solve problems, and how their capacities for memory and attention change

Concrete Operations

children become more adept at using mental operations, and this skill leads to more advanced understanding of the world -focus on what can be experienced and manipulated in the physical environment -they have difficulty transferring their reasoning to situations and problems that require them to think systematically about possibilities and hypotheses

Concrete Operations vs Formal Operations

concrete- can apply logic to things they can experience directly, concretely formal- the ability to think abstractly and apply logic to mental operations as well

Accomodation

entails changing the scheme to adapt to new information

Information Processing Approach

focuses on a detailed examination of specific cognitive abilities such as attention and memory

Cognitive-Development Approach

focuses on how cognition changes with age

Assimilation

occurs when new information is altered to fit an existing scheme

Notes:

recent research on brain development suggests that the capacity for abstract thinking is based on a growth spurt in the brain in late adolescence and emerging adulthood that strengthens the connections between the frontal cortex and the other parts of the brain

Schemes

structures for organizing and interpreting information

Piaget Concluded..

that age differences in patterns of wrong answers reflected differences in how children of various ages thought about the questions -that they also think differently

Preoperational Stage

the child becomes capable of representing the world symbolically, such as through the use of language and in play such as using a broom to represent a horse

Maturation

the driving force behind development from one stage to the next - all of us have within our genotypes a prescription for cognitive development that prepares us for certain changes at certain ages

Schemes After Infancy

they become symbolic and representational, as words, ideas, and concepts

Abstract Thinking

thinking in terms of symbols, ideas, and concepts ex: friednship, faith, time

Complex Thinking

thinking that takes into account multiple connections and interpretations, such as the use of metaphor, satire, and sarcasm