Cognitive Development during Adolescence

• Adolescence is a time when the ability to learn and use knowledge is at its highest point.
• Teenagers do well in activities that require high-level thinking, such as mathematics, reasoning, and making connections (analogies).
• Their scores are highest in these areas during late adolescence; afterward, they may decrease slightly.
• In vocabulary tests, the change is small.

Predicting the Future

• Scores on mental tests taken during adolescence predict how well someone might do as an adult better than scores from earlier ages.

Imagination

• Imagination is the ability to picture or create new ideas in our minds. It is most active between the ages of 19 and 35.

• Girls do better in tasks involving words and language.
• Boys do better in tasks with numbers or shapes (like maths or puzzles).
• In school, girls usually score higher in languages, while boys score higher in science and mathematics.
• These differences are likely due to interests, not because one is smarter than the other.

• Psychologist Piaget says that, in adolescence, thinking changes from dealing with things we see or touch (concrete) to thinking about ideas and possibilities (formal operations).
• This “Formal operation stage” is the last stage of thinking, in which people can understand theories, imagine “what if” scenarios, and solve complex problems.

• Adolescence is when learning and thinking abilities are at their peak.
• Mental tests taken at this age say more about adult abilities than tests in childhood.
• Imagination is very strong from 19–35 years.
• Boys and girls often show differences in test results due to different interests.
• Adolescents enter Piaget’s “Formal operation stage” and begin to think abstractly.