Cognitive Development & Information Processing

Adolescent Psych

Deductive Reasoning

The ability to use a general principle to reach a specific conclusion.

Hypothetical Thinking

The ability to think about possibilities and situations that may not actually exist.

Multiple Dimensions

The ability to consider several aspects or factors of a situation at the same time.

Formal Operations

Piaget's final stage of cognitive development, characterized by abstract and hypothetical thinking.

Competence

What a person is capable of doing or understanding.

Performance

What a person actually does in a particular situation.

Selective Attention

The ability to focus attention on important information while ignoring distractions.

Divided Attention

The ability to pay attention to more than one thing at the same time.

Working Memory

The ability to temporarily hold and work with information.

Reminiscence Bump

The tendency for people to have especially strong memories for experiences from adolescence and early adulthood.

Processing Speed

The speed at which a person can process and respond to information.

Synaptic Pruning

The process of removing unused or less-used connections between neurons.

Myelination

The process that makes neural communication more efficient by adding myelin around nerve fibers.

Plasticity

The ability of the brain to change and adapt based on experience.

Metacognition

The ability to think about and understand one's own thinking processes.

Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development

A theory that explains cognitive development as occurring through different stages.

Information Processing Theory

A theory that explains cognitive development through changes in attention, memory, processing, and other mental processes.

Cognitive Development

The development of thinking, reasoning, memory, attention, and other mental abilities.