A question for
When are children old enough to decide?
Naturally, a three-year-old child can decide whether they want to have strawberry ice cream or chocolate ice cream. But the ability to make decisions that relate to more complex or abstract things with uncertain implications lying in the distant future only develops much later.
At primary school age, working memory develops to such an extent that children can memorize up to four information units at a time. This makes complex decisions easier. It also improves the ability to first collect arguments for and against something, weigh them up against each other and then make a decision.
The ability to think about the future still develops strongly after a child’s tenth birthday. However, decisions that do not directly affect adolescents remain challenging up to the age of 14 to 16. After that, young people make just as good or bad decisions as adults!
About the author
Claudia M. Roebers
is head of the Developmental Psychology Department at the Institute of Psychology. She teaches and researches primarily on the cognitive development of children. Her research focuses on metacognitive abilities and the ability to self-regulate.
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This article first appeared in uniFOKUS, the University of Bern print magazine. Four times a year, uniFOKUS shows what academia and science are capable of. Thematically, each issue focuses on one specialist area from different points of view and thus aims to bring together as much expertise and as many research results from scientists and other academics at the University of Bern as possible.