What cognitive development change in adolescence enables hypothetical-deductive reasoning?

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Adolescents develop the ability to think abstractly and systematically about possibilities. This is formal operational thought, which makes hypothetical-deductive reasoning possible: you can form a hypothesis, deduce consequences, and test them by manipulating one or more variables. For example, you can imagine how increasing study time might affect grades while holding other factors constant, then reason through the outcomes rather than relying only on concrete, real-world observations. Earlier stages focus on concrete experiences or straightforward logical operations and don’t support this kind of deliberate, variable-by-variable testing.