Imagine that you could have a 'third eye' on any part of your body - where would you put it? This question was posed by developmental psychologist Jean Piaget (1972) to children and adolescents, thus helping form the last two stages of his model of cognitive development.
Children between age seven and 11 - at the third stage, 'concrete operational' - would tend to suggest the forehead as the most appropriate place for the third eye. Adolescents who had reached the fourth and final stage, 'formal operational', were more imaginative and inventive with their answers. For example, some suggested the hand as an ideal place for the third eye, so they could look around corners (Schaffer, 1988). This is an example of the abstract and idealistic thinking which typically arises at this stage in development and continues into adulthood. In teenagers, these patterns of thought might be seen in an increased interest in fantasy, gaming, and idealised thinking.
Early adolescence is a time of significant improvements in information processing [in terms of speed and capacity], deductive reasoning [i.e. coming to conclusions], knowledge acquisition, and gaining expertise (Steinberg, 2005). As such, teenagers might become deeply interested and knowledgeable in a certain subject at school, sports, music, trivia, or another chosen hobby.
Research cited by Steinberg (2005) also indicates that by mid-adolescence, most teenagers have become fully able to appraise and understand the consequences of taking risks. Nevertheless, adolescents are still much more likely to engage in risk-taking behaviour. To explain this discrepancy, researchers suggest that social and emotional factors factors play a huge role in adolescent decision-making and risk-taking (Steinberg, 2005).