Formal Operations Controversy

Piaget believed that formal operational thought, entered between eleven
and fifteen years of age, was a fourth and final stage of cognitive development,
although he did say that adults are quantitatively more knowledgeable
than adolescents. Some experts argue that young adults demonstrate a
fifth, postformal stage that is different from adolescent thinking. Postformal
thought is characterized by an understanding that the correct answer to a
problem requires reflective thinking that may vary from one situation to another.
Truth is viewed as an ongoing, never-ending process. Critics of this
view argue that research evidence is lacking to document this as a qualitatively
more advanced stage than formal operational thought.

Research has called into question the link between adolescence and the
stage of formal operational thought. It is estimated that only one in three
young adolescents is a formal operational thinker. Many adolescents think
in ways characteristic of concrete operations or use formal thinking only
part of the time. In fact, even many adults have not mastered formal operations.
Critics argue that individual differences and cultural experiences may
play a greater role in determining formal operations than Piaget envisioned.
Piagetian theory has been notoriously difficult to evaluate. Research indicates
that performance on Piagetian tasks depends on understanding the
instructions, being able to attend to the relevant aspects of the problems,
and being interested in the problems themselves. Adolescents who perform
best on formal operational tasks are often those with interests in the natural
sciences�"an unlikely finding if cognitive change is largely maturational.

Adolescents who do use formal operations may experience development
in two phases, one early and the other during late adolescence. The initial
stage is primarily assimilation and involves the incorporation of new information
into existing knowledge. Rather than using hypothetical-deductive
thinking, adolescents at this point may simply be consolidating their concrete
operational thinking. They tend to perceive their world in subjective
and idealistic terms. During the later phase, adolescents are more likely to accommodate, restoring intellectual balance after a cognitive upheaval occurs.
Although the popularity of Piagetian theory has declined, it remains one
of the most influential theories in developmental psychology. In fact, it was
Piagetian theory that led information-processing psychologists to become
interested in cognitive development. In a summation, understanding adolescent
cognitive skills requires some familiarity with all perspectives, in
spite of their respective weaknesses. Each has made a unique historical contribution
to current views of cognition.