The reasoning of adolescents in indeterminate situations was examined with particular attention given to how individuals incorporate the possibility that outcomes are determined jointly by more than one variable. Kuhn and Brannock's (1977) plant problem and two other similarly structured problems were administered to 25 inner-city adolescents…

The extent to which adolescents rely on rational versus experiential information processing was studied with 49 adolescents administered multiple measures of formal operations, two critical thinking questionnaires, a measure of rational processing, and a measure of ego identity status. Implications for studies of development are discussed in terms…

The study of 281 adolescents found no significant differences in creativity subvariables between the developmental stages of concrete and formal operations. Significant relationships were found between age and creativity. Figural flexibility, originality, and elaboration decreased as age increased from 13 to 16 years. (Author/JDD)

Examined relationship between levels of Piagetian formal reasoning ability and values preferences derived from Rokeach Value Survey. Findings from 448 secondary school students revealed that subjects with high scores on formal reasoning ranked terminal values representing abstract notions with long-term implications higher than those focusing on…

Formal operational ability and interpersonal understanding, possible predictors of adolescent egocentrism, were studied in 87 adolescents from 4 age groups--preadolescents, ages 11-12; young adolescents, ages 13-14; adolescents, ages 16-17; young adults, ages 18-21. Interpersonal understanding level did predict egocentrism as measured by a…

Describes two studies of the theoretical relation between adolescent egocentrism and formal operations. Study 1 used the Adolescent Egocentrism Scale (AES) and Lunzer's battery of formal reasoning tasks to assess 183 adolescents. Study 2 administered the AES, the Imaginary Audience Scale (IAS), and the Test of Logical Thinking to 138 adolescents.…

Administered five Piagetian tests to 180 adolescents for comparison to similar samples from 1967 and 1972. Found that today's adolescents exhibited higher levels of cognitive development than did previous cohorts. Gain varied across tasks, being very large for combinatory thought but mixed for conservation. This acceleration of cognitive…

Examined high school students' scores on test of formal thinking and those on test of reading. Students' success on both tests was disappointingly low. Lack of motivation appeared to be major problem. Correlations between scores on two tests were relatively low, although there was suggestive similarity between distribution of scores for formal…

Administered the Adolescent Egocentrism Scale (AES) to middle and high school students (N=129). Found partial support for Inhelder and Piaget's and Elkind's views that adolescent egocentrism is a function of beginning formal operations. Discusses the difficulty of assessing the true thoughts/feelings of persons who are worried how they will appear…

To evaluate the part that nascent skeptical doubt plays in shaping adolescent social-cognitive development, 61 high school students clearly classified as in concrete or formal operational stages of cognitive development completed a measure of epistemic stances. A relationship was found between cognitive and epistemic development. (SLD)

This paper reviews some literature on the emergence of formal reasoning and reports a study of reasoning performance of 213 middle grade students in relationship to grade level and chronological age. While a number of large-scale studies have indicated that formal reasoning emerges in a regular progression across age ranges and grade levels, few…

Investigated the relationship between the development of formal operations and the formation of ego identity in adolescence. Obtained significant positive correlations between combinatorial ability and degree of identity, suggesting that high identity may facilitate the application of combinatorial operations. Found some gender differences in task…

In an attempt to accelerate the development of formal operations in average young adolescents, up to 30 intervention lessons relating to all formal schemata were given by science teachers, over a period of 2 years, to classes in eight British schools. Boys starting the program aged 12 years-plus showed a pre-test, post-test effect size on…

A common concern raised by teachers from secondary schools and junior colleges in Singapore is the apparent inability or reluctance of adolescents to think critically and originally. Adolescent thought processes are probably shaped by the change in intellectual pace and quality between the primary and secondary school curriculum. This study of…

The constructs of concrete and formal operational reasoning were examined in 459 15-year-old secondary school students (234 males and 225 females) in Singapore. Log linear models were used to explore the relationships between Piagetian level of reasoning, the level of intelligence, gender, and type of home-speaking environment among these…