In 1904, G. Stanley Hall coined the term “storm and stress” to describe adolescent development. More than 100 years later, this description holds true. Adolescence is the period from age 13 to emerging adulthood. It can be a tumultuous period marked by cognitive changes and social experiences. Cognitive changes include developing metacognition and the ability to think abstractly. Similar to middle childhood, expanding social influences impact language development. In this chapter, we’ll focus first on theoretical contributions in cognitive development. We will then discuss cognitive and language development, and we’ll apply our understanding of cognitive development to the context of school and educational settings.

Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter, you will be able to do the following:

1. Identify the components and development of executive functions in adolescent cognitive development.
2. Compare and contrast theories of cognitive development in adolescence.
3. Discuss the importance of family, peers, and school settings in cognitive development.
4. Examine how biological and social factors influence the school experience.

Key Terms

Throughout this chapter, you will be introduced to important key terms that will help deepen your understanding of adolescent cognitive development:

• Critical thinking: analyzing information presented as facts, evidence, or arguments and being able to make a decision
• Bandwidth tax: the cognitive load or mental effort required to manage multiple tasks or information streams simultaneously
• Formal operational stage: Piaget’s final stage of cognitive development in which individuals develop the ability to think abstractly, logically, and systematically, formulate hypotheses, consider multiple variables simultaneously, and engage in deductive reasoning
• Cognitive plasticity: the ability of the brain and cognitive abilities to change over time
• Transitivity: the ability to understand the relationship between two objects
• Egocentrism: an adolescent’s belief that others are as attentive to their behaviors and appearance as the adolescent themself
• Imaginary audience: the belief that others are constantly observing and scrutinizing one’s behavior and appearance, as if one is the center of attention in a hypothetical audience. This phenomenon often leads adolescents to feel self-conscious or overly concerned about how they are perceived by others
• Personal fable: the way adolescents tend to see themselves as unique or invulnerable and is another example of biased thinking that occurs during adolescence
• Inductive reasoning: using specific observations, or comments from those who are perceived to be knowledgeable to draw general conclusions
• Deductive reasoning: reasoning begins with a general principle that then leads to proposed conclusions
• Heuristic thinking: a problem-solving approach that employs practical and efficient methods, often based on experience and intuition, to make decisions or solve problems quickly
• Pruning: process in which the brains eliminates unused neurons and connections, which helps speed transmissions between different regions of the brain

Licenses and Attributions for Chapter Overview and Learning Objectives

“Chapter Overview and Learning Objectives” by Kelly Hoke is licensed under CC BY 4.0.