Title: Effects of age and ability on syllogistic reasoning in early adolescence.
Abstract: To assess the influence of age and ability on linear syllogistic reasoning in early adolescence, 11 - and 13-year-old subjects of two levels of ability (bright and average) were presented with 64 three-term series problems (e.g., If John is better than Bill, and Bill is better than Tom, then who is the best?). Results showed that the effect of ability was quite dramatic even with verbal grade equivalent and Standard Progressive Matrices scores as covariates, whereas the effect of age was marginally significant and confounded with both. Comparison to Clark's 1969 adult sample showed that the pattern of errors was essentially similar for adolescents and adults, but more similar for the average than the bright subjects. Implications of the findings for Clark's theory and for a theory of intellectual precocity are discussed. A subject's success in correctly solving a problem depends on many factors: Some reflect momentary fluctuations in attention due to set and motivation; others reflect such long-term factors as the subject's intellectual ability, developmental level, and specific experiential history with the problem at hand. Our concern in this article is to investigate the effects of age and certain intellectual skills on the subject's syllogistic reasoning ability. In particular, we are concerned with the effects of subjects' reasoning skills at ages that correspond roughly to preformal and formal operational thought (Inhelder &
Publication Year: 1975
Publication Date: 1975-11-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 9
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