MODULE 25: Cognitive Development of the High School Learners

Discussant: Magsigay, Erika C.

BSE- English 1A
Monday 11:00AM - 2:00PM

Cognition refers to thinking and memory processes, and cognitive development refers to long-term
changes in these processes. “Adolescence marks the beginning development of more complex thinking
processes called formal logical operations”. Jean Piaget's theory has become one of the most influential
theories of cognitive development.
Jean Piaget was born in 1896 in Switzerland. He suggested that children sort the knowledge they
acquire through their experiences and growth, which happens in stages. He didn’t identify himself as a
psychologist, but as a genetic epidemiologist. He influenced many notable psychologists including Howard
Gardner. (Cherry, n.d.)
According to Piaget, Cognitive development happens in stages. In the adolescent years, the youth move
beyond the limitations of concrete mental operations and develop the ability to think in a more abstract manner.
Piaget called this new ability “Formal Operations”. The formal operational stage corresponds to roughly 12
years of age through adulthood. This is when children are able to think abstractly about can answer problems
and think of things that might not physically exist.(Bergin &Bergin, 2012) .
Piaget formulated this theory which demonstrates how the cognitive capacity of the adolescent allows
him/her to go beyond the sensible and concrete to dwell on what is abstract. Formal operations refer to the
ability to perform mental operations with abstract, intangible concepts such as "justice" or "poverty" and to be
able to estimate or describe the effect of these intangible concepts.
BRAIN DEVELOPMENT
1. Acquisition of new skills due to brains increasing weight and refining synaptic connections (corpus
callosum).
2. Process of continuous concentration of brain cell in prefrontal cortex and temporal and parietal areas
(myelination)
3. Three peaks of maturation at the age of 12, 15 and 18.5 4.
4. Acquire spatial awareness and formulate abstract or general ideas.
5. From ages 13 to about age 25, a pruning and strengthening process is happening in their brains
FORMAL OPERATIONAL STAGE (12-Aduthoood)
Piaget formulated this theory which demonstrates how the cognitive capacity of the adolescent allows
him/her to go beyond the sensible and concrete to dwell on what is abstract. Formal operations refer to the
ability to perform mental operations with abstract, intangible concepts such as "justice" or "poverty" and to be
able to estimate or describe the effect of these intangible concepts.
It marks a movement from an ability to think and reason from concrete visible events to an ability to think
hypothetically; to entertain what-if possibilities about the world; develop abstract thinking and can solve
problems systematically by using abstract concepts.
Formal Operational Thinking consists in:
A. Proportional thinking: making assertions outside visual evidence and stating what may be possible in
things not seen by the eyes.
B. Relativistic thinking: subjectivity making an opinion on facts involving ones own bias, prejudice of faces-
which may be either right or wrong.
C. Real Vs. Possible: examining a situation and exploring the possible terms of a situation, or solution.
Hypothetic-Deductive Reasoning -It emerges in reasoning from facts or situation to a particular situation. It
is very important method for testing theories or hypotheses. The HD method is one of the most basic methods
common to all scientific disciplines including biology, physics, and chemistry. Its application can be divided
into five stages:
1. Form many hypotheses and evaluate each hypothesis
2. Select a hypothesis to be tested
3. Generate predications from the hypothesis
4. Use experiments to check whether predictions are correct
5. If the predictions are correct, then the hypothesis is confirmed. If not, the hypothesis is disconfirmed.
Hypothetic-Deductive Reasoning
Example HD reasoning could be useful in everyday life.
Here is an example:
1. Suppose your portable music player fails to switch on. You might consider the hypothesis that perhaps the
batteries are dead. You decide to test whether this is true.
2. Given this hypothesis, you predict that the music player should work properly if you replace the batteries
with new ones.
3. You proceed to replace the batteries, which is the "experiment" for testing the prediction.
4. If the player works again, then your hypothesis is confirmed, and you throw away the old batteries. If the
player still does not work, the prediction was false, and the hypothesis is disconfirmed. You might reject your
hypothesis.
Problem-Solving Thinker
 Outside from formal operational thinking that can be developed by mathematical and science studies.
 It is the identifying the problem and seeking new and creative solutions. STEPS TO BECOME
PROBLEM-SOLVER
1. Observe and ask questions. Watch the way in which others perform. Ask others how they solve problems.
2. Approach from a different angle. Think of potential solutions as if you were a child
3. Learn a new word. Look at dictionary and find the "Word of the Day." Use the word several times during the
day.
4. Understand something new. Watch movies, read or look at pieces of art in genres or styles that would
normally be of no interest. Read more about them.
SIEGLER’S INFORMATION PROCESSING SKILLS
It views the human mind as a system that processes information according to a set of logical rules and
limitations similar to those with which a computer is programmed.
Robert Siegler described three main characteristics of the information-processing approach: thinking,
change mechanisms, and self-modification.
Thinking In Siegler's view, thinking is information processing. In this regard, Siegler provides a broad
perspective on thinking. He says that when children perceive, encode, represent, and store information from the
world, they are en-gaging in thinking. Siegler believes that thinking is highly flexible, which allows individ-uals
to adapt and adjust to many changes in circumstances, task requirements, and goals. However, there are some
limits on the human's remarkable thinking abilities. Individuals can pay attention to only a limited amount of
information at any one moment, and there are limits on how fast we can process information. Later in the
chapter we will explore children's powers of attention.
Change Mechanisms Siegler argues that in information processing the main focus should be on the role
of mechanisms of change in development. He believes that four main mechanisms work together to create
changes in children's cognitive skills; encoding, automatization, strategy construction and generalization
(Siegler & Alibali, 2005).
Encoding is the process by which information gets into memory. Siegler states that a key aspect of
solving problems is to encode the relevant information and ignore the ir-relevant parts. Because it often takes
time and effort to construct new strategies, children must practice them in order to eventually execute them
automatically and maximize their effectiveness. The term automaticity refers to the ability to process
information with little or no effort. With age and experience, information processing becomes in-creasingly
automatic on many tasks, allowing children to detect new connections among ideas and events that they
otherwise would miss (Kail, 2002).
The third change mechanism is strategy construction, which involves the discovery of new procedures
for processing information. Siegler (2001) says that children need to encode key information about a problem
and coordinate the information with relevant prior knowledge to solve the problem.
To fully benefit from a newly constructed strategy, generalization is needed. Children need to
generalize, or apply the strategy to other problems

In his experiments he uses role model, thereupon, adolescents may show the ff.;
a. Speed in information processing
b. Complexity
c. increased volume of information processing
METACOGNITION- It is defined as "cognition about cognition", or "knowing about knowing". It comes from
the root word "meta", meaning behind. It is the ability to think above thinking
INFORMATION PROCESSING TRENDS
1. The knowledge acquired through experience is stored in long term memory and become declarative and
procedural.
2. Learners are aware of their poor memory.
3. Ability to acquire an increased amount of knowledge and skills.
OVERACHIEVERS -are individuals who "perform better or achieve more success than expected." The
implicit presumption is that the "overachiever" is achieving superior results through excessive effort.
Achievement and IQ test are use to measure learners abilities. Those who fall to the top 3 and 5percent are
recognize as gifted. The latter are overachiever who has a very high grade.
IQ test - a score derived from one of several standardized tests designed to assess intelligence.
Advantages
1. Good predictor of success in school achievement
2. Beneficial in identifying learning
Disadvantage
1. Don’t measure the great number of abilities that belong to human intelligence.
CHARACTERISTIC OF OVERACHIEVERS
1. Positive self-value 3. Positive interpersonal relations 5. Academic oriented 7. Control over anxiety
2. Openness to authority 4. Less conflict on issue of self-autonomy 6. Goal-oriented

UNDERACHIEVERS -Individual whose performance falls below the measured IQ levels. It is a person and
especially a student who fails to achieve his or her potential or does not do as well as expected.
TWO TYPES OF UNDERACHIEVER
1. Withdrawn - more passive of their overt behavior, submissive and docile.
2. Aggressive - tend to be talkative, if not disruptive and rebellious.
REFERENCES:https:/www.slideshare.net/elockin24/cognitive-development-on-high-
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