Do children have to remember to reason? A fuzzy-trace theory of transitivity development*1

Brainerd, Charles J.; Kingma, Johannes

doi:10.1016/0273-2297(84)90021-2

Cited by 104 publications

(107 citation statements)

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“…Regardless of which conclusion one currently prefers, it remains the case that limiting research largely to the B&T task might restrict or even cause the types of theory that might be developed about other aspects of transitive inference (Wright, 1998a). For example, Brainerd and colleagues have conducted considerable research into the question of whether inferential responses derive from "gist" or from the premise information stored verbatim in memory (Brainerd & Kingma, 1984;Brainerd & Reyna, 1992). However, it may be that during day-to-day deductive transitive inference, reasoning about more than three-relations plus having to memorise all the premise information might be more of an exception rather than the rule (Allen, 2006;Goodwin & Johnson-Laird, 2005).…”

Section: Towards a Valid Normative Model Of Transitive Inferencementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Towards a Valid Normative Model Of Transitive Inferencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, it may be that during day-to-day deductive transitive inference, reasoning about more than three-relations plus having to memorise all the premise information might be more of an exception rather than the rule (Allen, 2006;Goodwin & Johnson-Laird, 2005). Indeed, this may partly underlie the recent revision of gist theory, which was originally applied to transitive inference (Brainerd & Kingma, 1984), into what is now a very well specified dual process theory of both reasoning and memory (e.g., Reyna, 2004).Finally here, some theorists (e.g., Bouwmeester et al, 2007;Dayton, 1998;Schnall & Gattis, 1998;Wright, 2006a) provide evidence that the relational aspects of transitive reasoning are quite Getting One Step Closer to Deduction 8 well developed from 5 years, but not fully developed until well beyond childhood. Some also report data on age of peak transitive performance.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Getting one step closer to deduction: Introducing an alternative paradigm for transitive inference

Wright¹,

Howells²

2008

Thinking & Reasoning

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Transitive inference is claimed to be "deductive". Yet every group/species ever reported apparently uses it. We asked 58 adults to solve 5-term transitive tasks, requiring neither training nor premise learning. A computer-based procedure ensured all premises were continually visible.response-accuracy and RT (non-discriminative nRT) were measured as typically done. We also measured RT confined to correct responses (cRT). Overall, very few typical transitive phenomena emerged. The symbolic distance effect never extended to premise recall and was not at all evident for nRT; suggesting the use of non-deductive end-anchor strategies. For overall performance and particularly the critical B?D inference, our findings indicate deductive transitive inference is far more intellectually challenging than previously thought. Contrasts of our present findings against previous findings, suggests at least two distinct transitive inference modes, with most research and most computational models to date targeting an associative mode rather than their desired deductive mode. This conclusion fits well with the growing number of theories embracing a "Dual Process" conception of reasoning. Finally, our differing findings for nRT versus cRT, suggests researchers should give closer consideration to matching the RT measure they use to the particular conception of transitive inference they pre-held. Inference (Goel, Makale & Grafman, 2004;Goodwin & Johnson-Laird, 2005;Martin & Alsop, 2004). Consider the following example. During your lunch break yesterday, you might have gone out running with one friend (say Jane), and noted that you really struggled to keep up with her.We can term the above information a premise, where A and B are entities and there is some comparison made between them (i.e. premise A:B). Now, during today's lunch break you ran the same route with Kerry, and noted she was really struggling to keep up with you (premise B:C). At the end of the day, Kerry tells you Jane has asked her to go running during tomorrow's lunch break, asking you whether you think she will struggle or not (A?C). A transitive inference allows you to work out that, exceptional circumstances aside, Kerry will struggle running with Jane. The beauty is that you can infer such an outcome, without having already experienced it directly.Many argue that the capacity for transitive inference is logical (i.e., deductive), partly because the conclusion necessarily follows as long as the relation used is a linear comparative term (e.g., "runs faster than"), and partly because we can deduce the conclusion upon simply being told the two premises, rather than having to directly perceive and verify them as true for ourselves.Transitive inference may lay at the heart of a plethora of cognitive and sub-cognitive competencies, from spatial navigation through to predicting where to find food; and from placing oneself within a social network through to scientific thinking (Allen, 2006;Archie et al., 2006;Bond, Kamil & Bolda, 2003;Hummel & Holyoak, 2001;Markovits...

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Section: Towards a Valid Normative Model Of Transitive Inferencementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Towards a Valid Normative Model Of Transitive Inferencementioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Getting one step closer to deduction: Introducing an alternative paradigm for transitive inference

Wright¹,

Howells²

2008

Thinking & Reasoning

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“…Nesta teoria, é atribuído um grande valor à interpretação particular que fazemos dos eventos a partir de experiências prévias relacionadas ao evento em questão. Uma das principais críticas a esta teoria refere-se à visão construtiva da memória, que implica na aceitação da premissa de que perdemos a memória do fato em si em detrimento da memória do significado atribuído ao fato, o que não foi corroborado por várias pesquisas subseqüentes (Alba & Hasher, 1983;Brainerd & Kingma, 1984;Brainerd, Reyna & Kneer, 1995;Reyna & Kiernan, 1994).…”

Section: Conclusãounclassified

A compreensão da memória segundo diferentes perspectivas teóricas

Neufeld

Stein

2001

Estud. psicol. (Campinas)

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“…Ironically, Braine's use of nonverbal methods in an attempt to improve on the validity of Piaget's assessment procedures may have had the opposite effect, allowing children to solve a task meant to measure transitive inference by means of spatial position cues. Assessment procedures in which length was correlated with position were also used in other studies in which preschoolers were reported capable of transitive reasoning (e.g., Brainerd, 1973bBrainerd, , 1973cBrainerd, , 1979Brainerd & Kingma. 1984, 1985.…”

Section: Transitivity In Young Children?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Functions, operations, and decalage in the development of transitivity.

Chapman¹,

Lindenberger²

1988

Developmental Psychology

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The hypothesis that some attempts to reduce the performance demands of concrete operational tasks may have allowed children to solve those tasks with preoperational functions was tested by administering two previously used versions of the transitivity task for length and weight to 120 children 6 to 9 years of age. In the standard Piagetian version of the task, comparison objects were presented only two at a time, with no correlation between length or weight and spatial position. In the alternate version, objects were ordered in space by length or weight, but placed too far apart for differences in length to be seen. As predicted: (a) the standard version was solvable only through an operational composition of premise relations, but the alternate version allowed children to recode length or weight as a function of spatial position; (b) the functional solution was easier and developed at an earlier age than the operational solution for length as for weight. In addition, the decalage between length and weight was found to result from children's tendency to infer weight as a function of size rather than from an operational composition of premise relations.

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Do children have to remember to reason? A fuzzy-trace theory of transitivity development*1

Cited by 104 publications

References 52 publications

Getting one step closer to deduction: Introducing an alternative paradigm for transitive inference

Getting one step closer to deduction: Introducing an alternative paradigm for transitive inference

A compreensão da memória segundo diferentes perspectivas teóricas

Functions, operations, and decalage in the development of transitivity.

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