Adolescence Cognitive Skills

Type of psychology: Developmental psychology
Fields of study: Adolescence; cognitive development
Adolescence brings the potential for logical and theoretical reasoning, systematic problem
solving, and acquisition of abstract concepts; adolescent cognitive skills are reflected
in social and personality development as well as in learning and problem-solving behavior.
Key concepts

• concrete operations stage
• developmental approach
• egocentrism
• formal operations stage
• hypothetical-deductive reasoning
• imaginary audience
• information-processing approach
• personal fable
• psychometric approach

Psychologists approach the study of adolescent cognitive skills from three
perspectives: the psychometric, the developmental, and the informationprocessing.
The psychometric approach focuses on defining and measuring
intellectual skills. Psychometric research typically involves studies of performance
on intelligence tests. The developmental approach seeks to identify
the types of cognitive skills that are unique to the adolescent years. This approach
has been heavily influenced by the cognitive stage theory of Swiss
psychologist Jean Piaget. The information-processing approach examines
the characteristics of memory and problem solving. It views adolescent cognitive
skills as parameters that determine how the brain stores and analyzes
information.