At which stage of cognitive development does the ability for abstract thinking and scientific reasoning develop?

Option 4 : Formal operational stage

According to Piaget, cognitive development takes place at different rates at different stages of development. At the elementary level, there is not only an increase in children's capacity to learn but also a qualitative change in their thinking process.

Piaget talks about cognition, he means the mental process which can Systematize, organize and utilize knowledge. This capacity develops in the learners through the interaction of innate power (heredity), environment, and maturation. Individuals make continuous efforts to adapt to the environment. Through this process of adaptation, cognitive development takes place.

Piaget has classified the whole continuum into four stages to elaborate on the process of cognitive development.

• Sensory Motor Period (0-2 years) 
• Pre-operational period (2-7 years)
  • (a) pre-conceptual phase (2-4 years)
  • ((b) Intuitive phase (4-7 years)
• Concrete operation period (7- 1 1 years)
• Formal operational period (1 1-15 years) 

 The Formal Operational Period: Formal operational period is the fourth stage of Piaget's classification which starts at about the age of 11 years and continues till about the age of 15 years. At the stage of concrete operation (7-11 years), the child requires mainly four important cognitive processes: Mental representation, Conservation, Class inclusion, and Multiple classifications.  

 Characteristics of formal operational period:

• A stage of thinking about the thinking process rather than merely thinking about the context of thought. 
• A stage of applying different and flexible ways to think about ideas. 
• A stage of real versus possible. Children do not think only about concrete things but start thinking about imaginary things and possible occurrences. 
• When children start thinking systematically and methodically.
• At when elementary level children can use deductive logic, while at the primary level children prefer inductive logic. 
• So by all these references, we can say that in the formal operational stage of cognitive development the ability for abstract thinking and scientific reasoning develops.