Goal-oriented critical reasoning and individual differences in critical reasoning biases.

In 4 experiments, the relationship among critical reasoning, personal goals, general intellectual ability, and information-processing style were explored. Three critical reasoning competencies were investigated: the law of large numbers, the intuitive analysis of covariance, and the ability to detect flaws in experimental designs. Participants were presented problems that involved goal-enhancing, goal-neutral, and goal-threatening evidence. There were 2 main findings: (a) Although general ability predicted 2 components of critical reasoning, biases in reasoning were better predicted by information processing style (i.e., rational vs. intuitive). (b) Reasoning on the goal-enhancing and neutral problems was less sophisticated than reasoning on threatening problems. Depth of processing seems to be a primary mechanism underlying motivated reasoning. In addition, information processing style is an individual difference variable that moderates the extent of reasoning biases. Similar results were obtained across different forms of critical thinking. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cultural differences in cognitive style development.

Children in several cultures seem to develop a similar cognitive style on the Matching Familiar Figures Test (MFFT). At first, they become more reflective (slow-accurate), then more fast-accurate. However, there are two impressions that qualify this account. First, the early MFFT development of Japanese children seems distinctive in that they become far more accurate on the MFFT, with small increases in latency. Second, in several cultures, error decreases may dominate latency increases in early development, implying that the MFFT measures cognitive competence as well as cognitive style. Evaluating either impression requires some way of quantifying speed and accuracy on the MFFT so that they can be directly compared across age and culture groups. We illustrate such an analysis with the MFFT records of 100 Chinese-American children, ages 6–10, and then reanalyze existing data to compare MFFT performance across four cultures. In all four cultures, error rates decrease more than latency increases. However, Japanese children"s unique development on the MFFT is supported. Although similar results have led some researchers to dismiss the MFFT as a style measure, we discuss why such a strong conclusion seems premature. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental analysis of the conditional reasoning abilities of primary-grade children.

Administered a conditional reasoning test to 36 1st-3rd graders. Each child was tested individually with a concrete and a verbal presentation of the test items. After his response to each test item, the child was asked to explain the reason for his response. An analysis of variance of the number of correct judgments showed significant main effects for Grade Level, Mode of Presentation, and Principle, and a significant Grade Level * Principle interaction. An examination of the explanations for correct judgments revealed that children's problem-solving behaviors varied according to both testing session and principle of inference. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental analyses of two formal operational structures: Combinatorial thinking and conditional reasoning.

Investigated developmental patterns for combinatorial thinking and conditional reasoning abilities and explored the possibility of an interrelationship between these formal operational structures in preadolescents and adolescents. 10 males and 10 females (IQ > 110) at each of the 5th-, 6th-, 7th-, and 8th-grade levels were given (a) 2 verbal and 1 quantitative combinatorial thinking tasks and (b) a 30-item conditional reasoning test (2-wk intertest interval). Analysis of variance for the verbal combinatorial thinking revealed that 7th and 8th graders scored significantly higher than 5th graders, and that male 6th graders scored higher than female 6th graders while female 7th graders scored higher than male 7th graders. Analysis of quantitative thinking scores also revealed a significant (positive) effect for grade level but no sex * grade level interactions. Conditional reasoning scores for 8th graders were also significantly higher than Ss' scores at any other grade level. These overall findings support Piaget's contention that formal operational structures emerge during early adolescence; however, the nonsignificant correlations between Ss' scores on the 2 types of tasks fail to confirm his contention of an integration of formal operational competencies during this period. Methodological problems with the Piagetian clinical approach are noted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental and individual differences in pure numerical estimation.

The authors examined developmental and individual differences in pure numerical estimation, the type of estimation that depends solely on knowledge of numbers. Children between kindergarten and 4th grade were asked to solve 4 types of numerical estimation problems: computational, numerosity, measurement, and number line. In Experiment 1, kindergartners and 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders were presented problems involving the numbers 0-100; in Experiment 2, 2nd and 4th graders were presented problems involving the numbers 0-1,000. Parallel developmental trends, involving increasing reliance on linear representations of numbers and decreasing reliance on logarithmic ones, emerged across different types of estimation. Consistent individual differences across tasks were also apparent, and all types of estimation skill were positively related to math achievement test scores. Implications for understanding of mathematics learning in general are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Teasing out cognitive development from cognitive style: A training study.

Tested whether cognitive development and cognitive style (field-dependence/independence) are different dimensions. The present study was conducted in the context of J. Pascual-Leone's (1974) model of cognitive development, in which an important aspect of cognitive development is delineated by mental capacity, and an important dimension of cognitive style is field-dependence/independence. 74 5.5–6.5 and 7.5–8.5 yr old Ss were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 trainers who taught half the group with a method developed by R. Case and the present 1st author (1974), and the other half of the group with a method designed to train Ss to actively look for informational cues. It was found that cognitive development and cognitive style are distinctly different dimensions because posttest data showed that, under training conditions that were suited to S's cognitive style, field-dependent older Ss were able to perform developmentally appropriate "control-of-variables" tasks at the same level as their field-independent age peers. Both of these groups outperformed younger field-independent Ss. Findings are discussed with regard to the theoretical model, their relevance to the stylistic dimension of reflection/impulsivity, and their educational implications. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age differences in problem-solving style: The role of emotional salience.

Qualitative differences in problem-solving style for situations varying in emotional salience were examined among adolescents, young, middle-aged, and older adults. Participants wrote essays on how each of 15 problem situations should be resolved. There were minimal age differences for problem-focused strategies, with all age groups using this strategy the most. Age differences for problem-solving strategy were highly dependent on the degree to which the situation was emotionally salient. All individuals were more likely to use an avoidant-denial strategy in low emotionally salient situations and passive-dependent and cognitive-analysis strategies in high emotionally salient situations. However, older adults used both passive-dependent and avoidant-denial strategies more than younger age groups. Problem-focused strategies were used least in high emotionally salient situations. Implications of findings are discussed from an adult developmental perspective. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of representations in age differences in analogical reasoning.

Age-related declines in the efficiency of a number of cognitive tasks have been postulated to be attributable to decreases with age in the quality of internal representations used to mediate performance on those tasks. This proposal was investigated in a geometric analogies task by manipulating variables (i.e., the number of elements per term and the temporal delay between presentation of pairs of terms) assumed to affect the quality or stability of internal representations. As expected, the performance of older adults was impaired more than that of young adults by these manipulations. Further analyses revealed that these representational deficits may be due to a reduction of approximately 40% in the quantity of some type of processing resource between, approximately, 20 and 70 years of age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The development of conditional reasoning skills.

A 5-trial social-conditional reasoning task was administered to 20 children at each of 4 age levels: 3, 4, 5, and 6 yrs. The results, based on 4 convergent measures, indicate that by 4 yrs of age children are able to reason from a premise to its logical conclusion in reasoning about the probable behavior of others. A component model of this ability as applied to real-world social situations is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-efficacy and work-related performance: The integral role of individual differences.

The present study estimated the unique contribution of self-efficacy to work-related performance controlling for personality (the Big 5 traits), intelligence or general mental ability, and job or task experience. Results, based on a meta-analysis of the relevant literatures, revealed that overall, across all studies and moderator conditions, the contribution of self-efficacy relative to purportedly more distal variables is relatively small. Within moderator categories, there were several cases in which self-efficacy made unique contributions to work-related performance. For example, self-efficacy predicted performance in jobs or tasks of low complexity but not those of medium or high complexity, and self-efficacy predicted performance for task but not job performance. Overall, results suggest that the predictive validity of self-efficacy is attenuated in the presence of individual differences, though this attenuation does depend on the context. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Response to contradiction: Scientific reasoning during adolescence.

In this study we examined how students restructure their scientific ideas in response to contradiction. Using equal numbers of male and female subjects, we presented 166 students aged 12, 13, and 14 with two conditions. In one interview condition, students were asked to make predictions about how much water would be displaced by objects of varying size, shape, and weight. They were then asked to test their predictions with physical apparatus by actually immersing objects in water. In the other inteview conditions, students were presented with the same experiences, but with an additional early opportunity to examine the equipment and to generate alternative variables. At first, subjects' predictions were generally wrong (in that they were guided by a weight rule). Gradually, most students changed their predictions in the face of contradictory evidence to a correct rule (volume). During the interview, boys learned the correct rule more quickly than did girls. However, there was a significant Sex?×?Treatment interaction for girls who had the additional opportunity to examine the equipment. We concluded that for girls, such additional experiences may (a) compensate for an initial lack of familiarity with formal experimental setting and (b) encourage them to use analogical reasoning processes to generate a list of potentially relevant variables. Furthermore, we noted that conceptual change requires reflection and that science educators should support the learner's mechanisms for restructuring information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reading comprehension: Developmental processes, individual differences, and interventions.

Research on the typical development of reading comprehension, individual differences in comprehension, and reading comprehension interventions is less common than research on word reading. The authors present an overview of research on the development of reading comprehension skills and sources of individual differences in comprehension with reference to cognitive models of comprehension. Methodological issues particular to developmental and individual difference research on comprehension are also described. The article ends with a selective review of research programmes that illustrate effective comprehension interventions for typically developing children and for children who struggle to understand what they read. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The impact of error training and individual differences on training outcomes: An attribute-treatment interaction perspective.

The authors examined the effectiveness of error training for trainees with different levels of cognitive ability, openness to experience, or conscientiousness. Participants (N=181) were randomly assigned to control, error-encouragement, or error-avoidance conditions and trained to perform a decision-making simulation. Declarative knowledge, task performance, and self-efficacy were measured posttraining. Findings suggest the effectiveness of error training is dependent on the cognitive ability or dispositional traits of trainees. High cognitive ability or more open individuals benefit more from error-encouragernent training than low cognitive ability or less open individuals. Conscientiousness has a negative effect on self-efficacy when trainees are encouraged to make errors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Familiarity effects in conditional reasoning.

Attempted to determine whether familiarity with content influences performance on conditional reasoning problems of the form "P implies Q" independently of ease of generation of specific examples of "Q and not-P." A paper-and-pencil test consisting of 4 problems in which these 2 factors were varied was administered to 488 undergraduates. For problems with easy access to instances of "Q and not-P" and for those with no such possibility, increased content familiarity resulted in higher performance levels. (5 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mental capacity and cognitive functioning: Developmental and social class differences.

Hypothesized that social class performance differences of same-age children would be negligible on pure mental (M) capacity measures but would be greater on tasks that confound other variables with M capacity. This hypothesis is anchored in a neo-Piagetian theory of cognitive development (J. Pascual-Leone; see record 1971-07908-001), which gives a central role to an attentional mechanism of limited M capacity that grows monotonically with age. 268 Israeli 8-, 10-, and 12-yr-olds of low or high SES completed 10 cognitive developmental tasks that measured pure M capacity, short-term memory, verbal IQ, and spatial-analytic ability. Results show that M capacity developed similarly in same-age Ss, regardless of SES. Significant differences among the investigated populations were found only in performing tasks that confounded factors of learning and style. Results support the notion that a cognitive development process exists that is universal in stage sequences and in the rate and timing of development. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental differences in episodic retrieval: The role of differences in concept representations in semantic memory.

Developmental differences in the relative salience of features in concept representations in semantic memory and their contributions to differences in cued recall were examined in two experiments. For second graders, fifth graders, and college students, acquisition encoding of cue–target noun pair information was constrained by means of defining-, characteristic-, category-, and incidental-feature orienting questions. At retrieval, the encoding of cue information alone was constrained (Experiment 1) within subjects by means of the same (e.g., defining at acquisition and defining at retrieval) or related (e.g., defining at acquisition and characteristic at retrieval) retrieval questions or was unconstrained (Experiment 2). In both experiments, the acquisition presentation duration was manipulated (1 s or 5 s) in order to examine the spread of feature activation within concepts. The results showed that recall varied with feature salience, with the salience greatest for defining features. In addition, the results suggested that the relative salience of defining features was at least as great for the children as for the adults. The results offer no support for Keil and Batterman's (1984) hypothesis of a shift from characteristic to defining features in the development of word meaning representation in memory. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Disinhibition of communicated thought: Generality and role of cognitive style.

Studied the effects on thought functioning in 80 male and 80 female adults of vocal occlusion by white noise masking (WNM). The interruption of vocal feedback did not change performance on either a cognitive task (a reading test) or on a visual-motor test (digit substitution) when no vocal activity was involved. For men there was a slight but significant performance decrement on the reading test when oral reading was involved. For all Ss, WNM produced an increase in impulse-related themes and a decrease in defensive themes on the TAT. Findings suggest that (a) hearing oneself as one speaks is necessary for modulating impulse and affect and for smooth reality testing in general; and (b) for men, the disinhibition effects of WNM tend to occur in the setting of a leveling cognitive style. Results are discussed in terms of their relevance to defensive organization and the need for vocal feedback in maintaining the stability of defense. (38 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Organization of knowledge and conditional reasoning.

The authors considered how the way in which knowledge is organized influences scientific reasoning. They adopted a constructivist approach to reasoning in which many-to-one schemata, linguistic mapping, and meaningful relations are assumed to be important components of hypothesis-testing skill. College students received a variant of P. C. Wason's selection task in which the semantic content was either familiar or unfamiliar and the interclause relations either did or did not express entailment. Results showed that entailment, which reflects knowledge organization, was more important than familiarity in determining adequate performance. These findings imply that the constructivist view proposed here is a more adequate account of reasoning than others because it alone emphasizes the organization of knowledge as important. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Impression management in the psychiatric interview: Quality, style, and individual differences.

Studied the ability of 24 male 20-63 yr old Veterans Administration Day Treatment Center psychiatric outpatients to vary intentionally their degree of apparent psychopathology during structured interviews (Mental Status Schedule). Patients who were defined as sick presenters prior to the interview phase of the experiment behaved in a significantly more pathological manner during an interview preceded by "fake sick" instructions than they did under "fake healthy" instructions. Patients who had been defined as healthy presenters manifested less of a behavior difference between the 2 interview conditions. There was evidence that patients primarily altered the content of their self-referent statements, not their style of interview behavior, and relied on cues provided by the interview questions when role playing mental illness and mental health. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)