Hi, this is Dr. Chris. This is part one of my lecture on cognitive transitions. Now, in the previous section, we learned a lot about biological trans transitions during um adolescence. And in this chapter, we're going to focus on both cognitive and social cognitive changes. So the first category that I want to talk about are changes in thinking about possibilities. Adolescent thinking is less bound to concrete specific events than it was before. When you look with children, children tend to have trouble with moving from specific to broader concepts. They also have trouble generating alternative possibilities systematically. And when you see them working on trying to solve a science project, they have trouble especially at this stage. Children compared to adolesccents have trouble comparing the observed what they believe is possible. And a lot of this is tied towards their inability to think abstractly. Now, here's an example. If you ask a pre-adolescent to describe them, they'll describe themselves. I am a third grader and I like to ride my bike. So, they're very specific things. Adolescent is a bit more abstract about the possible. They don't know much about phabbotomy. That's when you draw blood from someone. now but after taking a couple classes I will know more. So they know the possible even though it's not in front of them right here. So when does thinking about possibility come in handy? Well, math classes is one of the places that comes in especially the advanced um algebra classes. And that's why in junior high and high school you begin to see more of these advanced algebra classes. It's also come in handy in arguing and many parents talk about how their adolescence are better at arguing than they were before. I remember when I was babysitting my sister's kids the summer before I went to my PhD program and I watched them all summer and my niece wanted to buy a puppy dog. Um, no, a cat. She went to get a cat. So, I taught her this is what you got to do. You got to call a vet and find out the prices. And my sister got mad at me cuz she says, "You taught my daughter how to think logically." Well, I was like, "Well, she's starting to think logically." Anyway, we also see during adolescence that this helps in what we call hypothetical thinking. Kind of if then thinking if then if I do this then that they're be better able to think in that way. And we'll talk about a little bit more later. But they also become better at perspective taking. They are better at standing in someone else's shoes and understanding their perspective on an issue. Finally, uh thinking about possibilities is is really good and beneficial for decision making and planning ahead. Adolescence are much better about thinking ahead because they can think about what's not here yet. And again, children are kind of limited to what is here and here. what is now. Part of this has to do with thinking about abstract concepts. Um, when you look at abstract concepts, what I'm referring to are things not really readily seen, not something that's not in front of you. Now, for children, it's much more we call concrete, what's in front of them. it it's more bound to what's observable to them and um uh events and objects that are right in front of them. Um and it's a lot more concrete than compared to adolescence. Again, teens can think more abstractly as they reflect on events and on ideas. They're thinking this thinking uh about attributes or relationships seem to be separate from the objects that have these attributes and or share these relationships. They can disentangle them. For example, if you ask a concrete thinker um about some about a dog, they'll talk about a specific dog, the dog they have at home. But an adolescent can think about dogs, you know, more broadly, more general than can children. So when does thinking abstractly come in handy? talking about interpersonal relationships and what you know what if you ask a a child who they might marry when they grow up. It's very concrete. Um an adolescent can think more abstractly about what is possible. It could also come in handy when adolescents talk about religious beliefs and the religion overall. you have more in-depth conversations with them because they can think about the potential, the abstract. Related to this, adolescence are better able thinking about um the meaning of life. What does it mean to be alive? Uh younger children just aren't able to comprehend this. Not to the extent that adolescence can. We also see and this was true for me that there tends to be um increase in discussing an interest in politics and elections. Um they begin to really talk about and interested in who they would vote for if they were able to vote but also just understand the different perspectives, political affiliations, different political perspectives on government. Thinking about thinking. Thinking about thinking is often referred to as metaccognition. Um and metacognition um um really reflects kind of understanding awareness of one's own thinking processes. And this ability to recognize and be able to explain that can help with problem solving because you are better able to understand how do I come across how do I solve this problem how do I think what's the best way for me of approaching this problem because you understand how you do it and my children it's a little bit more I can't pardon abstract for them that's hard for them to understand we also See compared to children the teens are better at managing their thinking but they also better at explaining their thinking process. If you ask them you know a question both children and adolescence may come up probably the right answer but adolescence are better able explaining how they came upon that answer. What were the processes cognitive processes that they used to come up with that answer? We also see connected to this increase in introspection, self-consciousness during adolescence. It's when adolescence start to to turn more inward and thinking about themselves, more self-conscious about themselves. Now, part of this leads to what is called um formal operational egocentric thinking. formal operational egocentric thinking. This is the inability to distinguish your self-perception from how others see you. Formal operational egocentric thinking is the inability to distinguish your self-perception from how others see you. And so this ability come with that. It comes with its own type of egocentric thinking. There's two types that scientists tend to focus on. First is called imaginary audience. Imaginary audience involves having a kind of heightened sense of self-consciousness that the teen imagines that his or her behavior is a focus of everyone's concern and attention. Imaginary audience involves having such heightened sense of self-consciousness that the teen imagines that his or her behavior is a focus of everyone's concern and attention. For instance, when I was an adolescent, I often would get zits like right in the middle of my nose and it felt like there was almost like a spotlight looking at me and that everyone can see it or I got bad hair that day and everyone can see it, but they're all worried about themselves and they probably don't see that. So, imagine arts is just that, thinking that everyone is looking at you at that moment when they're probably not. Personal fable is a little bit different. It revolves around the adolescent egocentric and false belief that his or her experiences are unique revolves around the adolescent egocentric and false belief that his or her experiences are unique. Um for instance, you often hear this, you know, with daughters and the mothers. mothers, you have no idea what I'm going through, even though they probably know and they probably went through the same things. Keep in mind that both types of egocentric thinking, although we're talking about adolescence, you sometimes might see it to some degree in adults as well. Okay. So, another type of thinking that I want to talk about is thinking in multiple dimensions. And multi-dimensional thinking is important because it reflects really reality. But now with children, they could think about things but only one aspect at a time. Just one thing at a time. They can't consider multiple things, especially three or more things at a time. But adolescence can think about things that are multi- in multiaceted ways. They can consider multiple factors simultaneously. Um so they could consider taking multiple options like if you decide on what classes to take there are three classes to take they can consider all of them at one time and kind of consider the way the the advantages and disadvantage them but children can just do one thing at a time. So when can multi-dimensional thinking come in handy? I think it comes in handy describing ourselves in complex and sometimes contradictory ways. By that I mean that sometimes we act differently depending on the context. You know, you might say, "I'm tend to be shy except when I'm around my friends." Um, but our ways of explaining ourselves aren't always consistent across contexts. Multi-dimensional also can help us understand sarcasm because understanding sarcasm requires the ability to understand what the person is saying, how that it's being said, and the context in which it's being said. So sarcasm requires the ability to consider simultaneously what the person is saying, how it is being said, and the context in which is being said. So again, it's multi-dimensional, and you consider all them at one time. A third way that this can come in handy is understanding more sophisticated humor. You'll notice that with adolescence that they can understand more I don't want to say dull humor because that sounds naughty but just they understand more sophisticated humor what we call double and tandras double and tandras are things that have multiple meanings depending on the context of it. So you uh someone and a child might see it in one way but an adult might see it in multiple ways but you'll see that their jokes also in adolescence as they thinking becomes more multi-dimension their humor and jokes that they crack becomes a little bit more sophisticated. The other kind of theme of adolescent thinking is adolescent relativism. But children often see things more in absolute terms, black or white. You're with me or you're against me. You're my friend or you're not my friend. Adolescents, on the other hand, tend to see things as relative to a particular situation or particular person and thus they see things more in shades of gray. It's not either either or. It depends on the situation. Now this is a great advancement but sometimes this can complicate relation especially the parent child relationship. Uh teens begin to realize that hey their parents are human um and they're not perfect and some teens especially at the beginning that this they begin to question everything. Well, if my parent can be wrong, are there any absolute truths out there? So, it's sort of like they get this knowledge and they understand it, but then they have trouble using that knowledge and dealing with that knowledge, but eventually they begin to understand that and begin to understand that parents like other people have good and bad traits and their uh perceptions on certain things may depend on you know the relevance to them. and so they can understand things. And so I really like this idea because it's the idea that you know these advances don't happen overnight and they happen in more gradual process but eventually especially as you become adults we're better able to handle that uh things are in shades of gray. I want to talk about Jean P. Pay was a um Swiss researcher and he had his training in biology and physiology. So he wasn't a psych major. One thing um and growing up he liked going into the woods and I think he lived near a lake and used to catch mlllesks and dissect them and look at the different structures but just like he like interested in the structures of a mollisks and they form the whole he takes a structuralist perspective on understanding thinking takes a structuralist perspective terms of uh adolescent thinking and that kind of shaped his theory on cog cognitive development. He also takes a more probably because he takes a more biological perspective, he takes a more stage perspective. And so all stage theories in general tend to emphasize more qualitative development that they tend to emphasize kind of transformations in something. And in this case, he believed that there are transformations in the structure of thinking. Again, analogous to the structures of mollisks, structures of thinking. And each stage is characterized by a unique cognitive structure or organization. Think about structure as being like pieces of a clock. And at each stage, the pieces of the clock are put together differently. And as you get older, they fit together better. And they begin to operate better as you get older. So each stage is characterized by a stage and that's qualitative development. Qualitative development is like changes in transformation like the changes in a butterfly. And each stage is characterized by unique um cognitive structures or organizations. Oh, oops. Sorry. I should have checked. Okay. Okay, sorry about that. Um, we also see the growth in what he called operational thinking. It's the ability to think and kind of in a abstract imagine complicated and and also in concrete situations. It's the ability to think in multiple contexts. It's what we today might call cognitive flexibility. And the imagine is that is just that concrete is just like here now. But all these different contexts and complicated ways we need to have thinking that is flexible. And so we can because we're all come across situations that are different and we need to be able to apply our thinking in different situations and different contexts. As I alluded to earlier, this does not happen overnight. This is a gradual process. So when we talk about these skills of this stage, it's more of the end product and it's the slow progress of pro progressive gradual progress through that reflects this cognitive change. Now, PJ would have argued that everyone in the world thinks the same way because it's universal. He takes a more biological perspective that someone in Stillwater, Oklahoma thinks the same way as someone in Tulsa, Oklahoma compared to Pure, Illinois, compared to Wallow Wall, Washington or even painting uh even in China. But in recent years, we've discovered that the ability to think in form operational way is shaped by a number of factors. Typically, children who have secure attachments are more likely to think in form operational ways, think more abstractly. Part of this might have to do with the nature of the interaction between parents and children that kind of facilitates this ability. Also, studies have shown that children who receive training in deductive reasoning are better able to think abstractly in a more of a formal operational way. So, if you teach them how to do that, they can they can do better than what their age would suggest. We also see generational changes that children today are better able to do it than in previous generations. Maybe that has to do with technology, what children are able to do. You know, we didn't have the internet. We didn't have cell phones, you know, and so we have more ways of fostering our cognitive abilities. This part I find really really important is that children can think abstractly and more in a formal operational way if the task is relevant to them and if they are knowledgeable to them. So if you talk about a task and you do it in a foreign country where that type of task is unfamiliar, it's totally foreign, then they're not going to be able to think abstractly. But if you use a task in a foreign country and try to apply it here in the United States, they may not understand it. So again, it needs to be relevant. And I think that goes to more of motivation, but also knowledgeable. If you have a knowledge base on something, you can think abstractly. For instance, I've done research for well for 20 years. So I can think abstractly about the process of research. However, chemistry I have no background in that and I could not think abstractly about that. So your knowledge base and its relevance to you is important. Okay. So I want to talk about information processing. Um information processing um where am I at? It's based on really the computer science metaphor and you often see the different theories uh explaining flowcharts um outlining the various step of the cognitive processing. Again, they use the computer as a way of understanding how we think and I'm going to focus on five areas that IP theorists focus on. The first is attention. Attention is focusing on something or someone. It's focusing on something or someone. And there are two types that I want to talk about. Selective attention and divided attention. Selective attention is when teens can focus on one stimulus like reading a book and tune out another one, the TV. So someone can maybe work on their homework with the TV or radio on the background. That is selective attention. Divide attention is when teens can pay attention to two sets of stimuli at the same time. And so that could be, you know, on your cell phone where you're listening to your friend at the same time. Now, we see improvements on both of these in adolescence. and improvements means that teens are better able at concentrating and focusing on complicated tasks. So if you give complicated tasks to a a child, you know, a 10year-old and a 16year-old adolescent, you're going to see that the adolescent can focus more and thus they can focus more on tasks that are complicated. So reading and comprehending reading material adolescent is better able at doing it in the long haul in the long haul. Okay. Working memories or or memory abilities, I'm sorry. Now, working memory involves our ability to remember something for just a short period of time. I like it. It's sort of the working part of our memory, what we're using while we're processing the information. It's sort of where we're storing it. It's like a working bench. It's what we're putting the stuff we're currently working on. Long-term memory involves being able to recall something from a very long time ago. So knowing for instance that my second grade teacher's name was Eith Stubs who I was friends with on Facebook by the way until recently that's my long-term memory. It's like your database like if you access a file in your long-term memory to borrow from computer men board. Now both of these are important in solving problems both in and out of school. uh taking multiple choice tests. You need to know your long-term memory, but also problem solving. Doing something in a in a a science project or something, a science experiment would be important, but also uh as we get older, we are better able at both our working memories, but also long-term memories. Adolescence are be better at both of them. Um both at the kind of short-term working memory, but also our long-term memory. our our memory systems become better organized as we get older. Processing speed reflects how quickly you can process information. Um, and as we get older, our processing speed tends to increase um especially during early to middle adolescence. So there's a big increase in during that stage and then afterwards it sort of levels off. So there's an increase in processing speed, your ability to think from early to middle adolescence, but then it tends to level off afterwards. Oh, I guess I only have four of these. I forgot how many said I was going to look at. I must have cut one. I'm sorry. Another area that I want to talk about is organizational strategies. And I sort of alluded to that earlier. Compared to children, teens are more planful uh in planning something, I guess I should say. So if they have to do something like decide on what they want to do during the summer, teens are better at planning that than our children. Teams are more likely also to approach a problem with an appropriate strategy. They're able to fit this problem requires this strategy. They part of it experience and part of it just that kind of like the goodness of fit. They know that this key fits into this keyhole better. But they also are flexible in using other strategies. And so when they're solving a problem, they are better able to use the correct one. But if it doesn't work for some whatever reason, they are flexible. Children on the other hand, even if you teach them how to do a strategy, they are somewhat limited. And if it doesn't work, then they're kind of lost. Adolescence can think about the possible and the, you know, the abstract. And so they can think beyond what's available and think of other strategies. Teens also have more advanced pneummonic approaches. Pneummonic approaches are basically strategies that we use um when trying to remember things, either bring up the memory or kind of save the memory. And as we get older, we use more complex ways um to remember things. That's why if you give information to a a 10-year-old and a 16-year-old, the 16-year-old is probably going to do better on the test because they can think of more pneummonic approaches to remembering the information. Okay, so that's the last of this section. Um, please let me know if you have any questions in part two. I'm going to lecture on the second part of my lecture. Okay. So, I need to whoop. There we go. But we're not there yet. So, I'm teasing you. Anyway, have a great day.