PS276 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Long-Term Memory, Metacognition, Mnemonic
Document Summary
Cognitive-developmental view argues cognitive development proceeds through a fixed sequence of qualitatively distinct stages. Adolescent thinking is fundamentally ifferent from the type of thinking employed by children. Stages: sensorimotor (birth-2, preoperational (2-5, concrete operations (6-early adolescence, formal operations (adolescence-adulthood) Transitions to higher stages occur when child"s biological readiness and the increasing complexity of environmental demands interact to stimulate more advanced thinking. Not all adolescents or adults develop formal operational thinking or employ it regularly. Development of advanced reasoning abilities can be facilitated by training. However research suggests reasoning capabilities develop gradually and continuously rather than stages. Identifies the specific abilities that improve as individuals move from childhood to adolescence. Taken together, these 5 gains explain why adolescents are better than children at abstract, multidimensional, and hypothetical thinking. Selective attention (focus on one stimulus and tune out another) and divided attention (pay attention to two sets of stimuli at same time) both improve.
