Cognitive Changes during Middle Childhood and Adolescence
Learning Objectives
- Explain Piaget’s stage theory and Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory as it applies to middle childhood and adolescence
- Compare and contrast between Piaget’s stage theory and Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory
- Describe the various aspects of the process of thinking and how it applies to middle childhood and adolescence
- Describe the concept of intelligence, theories on intelligence and how we measured intelligence
School years are times of rapid cognitive development. Biological changes in brain structure and connectivity in the brain interact with increased experience, knowledge, and changing social demands to produce rapid cognitive growth. Development of executive functions, or cognitive skills that enable the control and coordination of thoughts and behavior, are generally associated with the prefrontal cortex area of the brain. The thoughts, ideas, and concepts developed during this period of life greatly influence one’s future life and play a major role in character and personality formation.
In this chapter, we will focus on two theories on intelligence: Piaget’s cognitive development theory and Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory. We will then describe various components of information processing such as attention, memory, processing speed, and metacognition.
