Adolescents not only know more than children but they are now able to think in ways that are more advanced, efficient, and generally more effective.
There are five chief ways in which adolescents' thinking differs from that of children: Adolescents are better at thinking about the world of the possible; they are better at thinking about abstract concepts; they are able to think about the process of thinking itself; they think multidimensionally; and they are able to think in relative (as opposed to absolute) terms.
Thinking about Possibilities: Whereas children's thinking is oriented to concrete events that they can directly observe, adolescents have the ability to think about what might be. Related to this new ability to think about possibilities is the adolescent's development of hypothetical thinking, or thinking that involves "if-then" statements.
Thinking about Abstract Concepts: A second notable characteristic of adolescent thinking is the ability to understand abstract, conceptually based relationships and concepts. This ability underlies the adolescent's interest in topics such as interpersonal relationships, politics, philosophy, religion, and morality.
Thinking about Thinking: The ability to think about thinking, called metacognition, permits teenagers to think about the strategies they use to solve problems and to think about their own thoughts and feelings. A byproduct of metacognition is a kind of egocentrism characterized by an intense preoccupation with the self. According to Elkind, adolescents develop personal fables, or beliefs that they are so unique that what happens to others will not happen to them. These personal fables can cause the teen to feel invulnerable and lead to risky behavior based on the belief that bad things only happen to others. Also, adolescents sometimes experience the effect called the imaginary audience, which is an extreme self-consciousness and belief that others are constantly watching and evaluating one's actions. These phenomena may not be limited to adolescence; in fact, adults have been found to exhibit these behaviors as well. Some research suggests that adolescents are egocentric for emotional and social reasons, not cognitive ones.
Thinking in Multiple Dimensions: Whereas children tend to think about things one aspect at a time, adolescents can consider several dimensions of a situation at once. This makes possible more sophisticated and complicated relationships with other people. In addition, it helps provide a new understanding and appreciation of things such as: sarcasm, satire, metaphor, and double-entendres.
Adolescent Relativism: Children tend to see things in absolute terms, as either black or white. Adolescent thinking is characterized by relativism, the ability to see that situations are not just good or bad but rather can be interpreted in many different ways.
THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ADOLESCENT THINKING
The two theoretical viewpoints about the nature of cognitive development that have been especially important are the Piagetian perspective and the information-processing perspective.
Piaget's View of Adolescent Thinking: Generally, theorists who adhere to the Piagetian approach take a cognitive-developmental view of intellectual development and argue that cognitive development proceeds in a stage like fashion (sensorimotor; preoperational; concrete operations; formal operations), that adolescent thinking is qualitatively different from the type of thinking employed by children, and that during adolescence individuals develop a special type of thinking--"formal operational"--that they use across a variety of situations.
The chief feature that differentiates adolescent thinking from the type of thinking employed by children is the abstract system of propositional logic. Although young adolescents may demonstrate formal thinking, it has a transient quality and does not become consolidated until middle or even late adolescence. Research in this realm suggests that differentiating between what adolescents are capable of and what they actually do (referred to as the competence-performance distinction)may reveal the extent to which formal operations are displayed. Although Piaget thought formal operations developed in a stage-like fashion, more recent research suggests that these skills develop more gradually and continuously.
Changes in Information-Processing Abilities during Adolescence: In response to criticisms of the Piagetian perspective, the information-processing approach suggests that a more componential approach be taken. This approach divides cognitive processing into its basic components (attention, working memory, processing speed, organization, metacognition) and suggests that the advanced thinking that comes with adolescence is the result of better strategies for the input, storage, manipulation, and use of information. Changes that information-processing theorists observe in adolescents include advances in both selective and divided attention, increases in working and long-term memory, an increase in the speed of information processing, improvement in organizational strategies, and improvement in knowledge about their own thinking processes.
New Directions for Theories about Adolescent Thinking: Several recent theorists have attempted to integrate elements from the Piagetian perspective and the information-processing approach to explain adolescent cognitive development. A neo-Piagetian approach proposed by Case suggests that cognitive development proceeds in discrete stages, but that differences between stages are due to the cognitive components proposed by the information-processing approach. Thus, automatization (where various cognitive processes become automatic or second nature) occurs. Demetriou, on the other hand, argues that there are a series of specialized structural systems that are used to solve different types of intellectual problems.
THE ADOLESCENT BRAIN
What physiological changes in the brain can be linked to changes in the adolescent's thinking and behavior? Recent improvements in the study of brain maturation during adolescence and the use of various imaging techniques, including fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) and PET (positron emission tomography), have revealed changes in synapses, neurotransmitters, and the prefrontal cortex that may account for the observed changes in adolescent thinking and behavior.
In the cortex, "pruning" of excessive and unnecessary synapses may lead to increased efficiency in information processing.
Increased emotionality, increased responses to stress, and decreased responses to rewards during adolescence may be the result of changes in several neurotransmitters, including dopamine and serotonin. These changes in neurotransmitter levels appear to affect most prominently the limbic system, the part of the brain that processes emotional stimuli.
A great deal of efficiency-enhancing synaptic pruning and myelination of neurons in the prefrontal cortex occurs during adolescence. The prefrontal cortex is where higher-order cognitive processes like planning, decision-making, goal-setting, and metacognition occur.
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN INTELLIGENCE IN ADOLESCENCE
Some researchers have focused on the measurement and assessment of individual differences in mental abilities during adolescence -- in particular, differences in intelligence.
The Measurement of IQ: Standardized intelligence tests, or IQ tests, are often used to study individual differences in cognitive abilities as compared to the scores of others from the same cohort (or group of people born during the same historical era). Initially developed by the French psychologist Alfred Binet, a variety of tests now exist, including the Stanford-Binet, the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. Critics of such tests argue that they measure just one type of intelligence--"school smarts"--and neglect other equally important skills, such as social intelligence, creativity, and "street smarts."
Multiple Intelligences: Sternberg and Gardner propose an alternative approach to studying intelligence. Sternberg has suggested a triarchic theory of intelligence which examines three distinct types of intelligence: (1) componential intelligence (similar to what traditional tests measure), (2) experiential intelligence (creativity), and (3) contextual intelligence ("street smarts"). Gardner has proposed that there are seven types of intelligence (verbal, mathematical, spatial, kinesthetic, self-reflective, interpersonal, and musical) in his theory of multiple intelligences.
Intelligence Test Performance in Adolescence: Research suggests that intelligence is a very stable trait during adolescence. For example, children who score high on IQ tests during early adolescence are likely to score high throughout their adolescent years. Despite the fact that IQ scores remain stable during adolescence, adolescents' mental abilities do increase. Thus, schooling has been found to enhance individuals' performance on standardized tests of intelligence.
Recent studies of sex differences in mental abilities have shown that the earlier gender gap in math abilities, favoring boys, has disappeared. Male and female adolescents also score equally well in tests of verbal ability. It appears that the only reliable sex difference in mental abilities is in the area of spatial ability.
The SAT: Unlike intelligence tests, aptitude tests, such as the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), are designed to predict a student's future performance in school. The SAT has been found to be correlated with college performance. However, the SAT may be a more valid predictor of college math grades for males than for females.
Culture and Intelligence: It has been argued that youth learn best when they are stimulated to "reach" a little further intellectually than they can grasp (which Vygotsky has referred to as their zone of proximal development). Additionally, ideal learning situations include a mentor who provides additional support for cognitive performance, a technique known as scaffolding. Defining one's cognitive competence or intelligence, however, has been fraught with many challenges. Intelligence tests may be culturally biased against ethnic minorities as they tend to score lower than their white peers. A more culture-fair test has been proposed in order to minimize the language differences as well as reduce favoritism of one ethnic group over another.
ADOLESCENT THINKING IN CONTEXT
Psychologists have studied the practical side of adolescent thinking in three domains: in social situations, in risk-taking, and in the classroom.
Changes in Social Cognition: Changes in social cognition refer to how adolescents think about other people, about interpersonal relationships, and about social institutions. Studies of social cognition fall into three categories: impression formation (how individuals form and organize judgments about other people), social perspective taking (how accurately individuals make assessments about the thoughts and feelings of others), and social conventions (concerning individuals' conceptions of justice, social norms, and guidelines that regulate social interaction).
Impression Formation: Studies of impression formation examine how individuals form and organize judgments about other people. These impressions mark the development of an implicit personality theory and develop in five directions. Specifically, impressions become (1) more differentiated, (2) less egocentric, (3) more abstract, (4) more dependent on the use of inference, and (5) more highly organized.
Social Perspective Taking: The development of social perspective taking provides the adolescent with the ability to view events from the perspective of others. According to Selman, the young adolescent progresses through the stage of mutual role taking which allows the adolescent to be an objective third party who can see how the thoughts or actions of one person can influence another. Later in adolescence, perspective taking develops an in-depth, societal orientation which eventually improves the ability to communicate and reason with others.
Conceptions of Morality and Social Convention: Preadolescent thought on social conventions, or norms that govern everyday behavior, is based on rules from authorities, whereas adolescents view these conventions as expectations that grow out of social norms. In all three areas, thinking becomes more abstract and more sophisticated during the adolescent years.
Adolescent Risk-taking: Research on cognitive development during adolescence has also been aimed at understanding the thought processes behind adolescent risk-taking. One perspective for understanding this behavior comes from the behavioral decision theory which suggests that all behaviors can be analyzed as the outcome of a series of 5 steps (from identifying options to creating a decision rule based on those consequences). Contrary to popular wisdom that adolescents are poor decision makers, research suggests that adolescents make decisions in much the same way that adults do. Research also indicates that adolescents are no more likely than adults to suffer from feelings of "invulnerability." The current consensus is that young people sometimes behave in risky ways not because of faulty decision making but because they evaluate the possible consequences of their actions differently than adults do. Additionally, individuals who are high in sensation seeking are more likely to engage in various types of risky behaviors than those who are low in this quality.
Adolescent Thinking in the Classroom: Research on cognitive development in adolescence suggests a number of ways that schools might change in order to make classroom instruction better matched to the developing capabilities of adolescent students. For example, adolescents require schools to challenge their critical thinking skills so that their performance (what they achieve) matches their competence (what they can do). Unfortunately, however, little has been done to change the way that adolescents are taught, and few high school programs are designed to stimulate the development of formal operations or more sophisticated information-processing skills.
