Knowledge and Cognitive

Development in Adulthood

He ate, given reality

Piaget described as "formal operational" the ability to think outside of the

immediate. and independently of it. In the formal

operational stage, the individual acquires the ability to think abstractly, think

about the possible and the probable, combine different elements of the

thinking subject and vary them systematically, and verify the validity of the

observed data and established relationships. According to Piaget, these skills

are acquired between 11 to 12 years and, at the latest, 15 to 20 years.

The regression hypothesis expresses the conviction that skills are formed
through early development, peak during young adulthood, and then
begin to decline during middle and old age, with adults "losing" ability
links in reverse order. to the one in which they were acquired. .

As some researchers rightly point out, it appears that the regression

hypothesis is acceptable only for new and unfamiliar areas and situations,

where adults temporarily "return" to lower levels of cognitive functioning to

become familiar with new material.

The Postmodern Contribution to the

Understanding of Cognitive Development
According to contextualist theories of
Theoretical and empirical research development, cognitive changes happen in
showed that formal operations were not adulthood, allowing the individual to solve
the Final Phase of cognitive development complex problems of life's mottos and function
and that cognitive development did not in multiple simultaneous realities and multiple
end in adolescence or young adulthood. frames of reference in terms of thought and
values.

The Interdependence of Knowledge, Age and

Development in Adulthood

Formal thought has been criticized mainly for its neglect of the
thinker, who in thinking is imputed with complete "objectivity",
Neutrality and lack of knowledge, experience and identity.

The Mechanisms of
Cognitive Development
in Adulthood
The tendency to favoritism is the main cause of
misunderstandings in the traditional understanding
of the relationship between maturing and
developing learning. At the center of the basic
dilemma: is development a function of learning or
is learning a function of development?

The Developmental Shift in Adulthood

However, as soon as sociocultural development begins to lose its biological
support, the entire course of cognitive development and development changes
the fundamental pattern, and hence so do the character and direction of action.
of sociocultural stimuli that allow further development.

Both the organic and the socio-

cultural of human development are
found in the complex relationship
between figure and land and each
cannot be isolated and considered
without the other.

Reference: Despotovic, Miomir. (2014). Knowledge and Cognitive Development

in Adulthood. Andragoske studije. 39-60.