Reevaluation of the literature on the development of transitive inferences.

Breslow, Leonard A.

doi:10.1037/0033-2909.89.2.325

Cited by 124 publications

(109 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Only at age 8 years did children now consistently choose the correct item (A) regardless of whether filler-blocks were used or not (overall three-term performance = 76%). Ameel, Verschueren and Schaeken (2007) confirmed similar levels for 8 year-olds in two separate Transitivity for Height v Speed 9 experiments, but also concluded that deductive-transitive-inference development is still not complete at age 8 (Kallio, 1988;Rabinowitz et al, 1994; (Breslow, 1981). Put another way, training is used to give the participant a head start on the exact problems s/he will face during test trials.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 64%

“…Regarding transitive reasoning, Kallio (1982) found that in order to succeed on his task within the Extensive-Training-Paradigm, children first demonstrated internalisation of the entire transitive series given by the pair-wise information, constructing an internal mental representation of the linearly graded scale (Breslow, 1981;Halford & Andrews, 2004;Wright, 2001). Note, Transitivity for Height v Speed 23 children generally tended to be able to generalise the series, only if the premises had been given in both directions and were fully-ordered (see also Riley & Trabasso, 1974;Stromer et al, 1993;Siegal, 2003;Wright, 2006b).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the ExtensiveTraining-Paradigm, the training is used deliberately in order to instil the entire transitive series in memory (Breslow, 1981). Put another way, training is used to give the participant a head start on the exact problems s/he will face during test trials.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Transitivity for height versus speed: To what extent do the under-7s really have a transitive capacity?

Wright

Robertson

Hadfield

2011

Thinking & Reasoning

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Transitive inference underpins many human reasoning competencies. The dominant task (the "Extensive-Training-Paradigm") employs many items and large amounts of training, instilling an ordered series in the reasoner's mind. But findings from an alternative "3-Term-Paradigm" suggest transitivity is not present until 7+ years. Interestingly, a second alternative paradigm (the "Spatial-Task"), using simultaneously-displayed height relationships to form premise-pairs, can uphold the 4 year estimate. However, this paradigm risks cuing children and hence is problematic. We investigated whether a height-task variant might correspond to a more ecologically-valid 3-term task. 222 4-6 year-olds either completed a modified height task, including an increased familiarisation phase, or a computer-animated task about cartoon characters running a race in pairs. Findings confirmed both tasks were functionally identical.Crucially, 4 year-olds were at chance on both; whereas 6 year-olds performed competently. These findings contrast with estimates from all three paradigms considered. A theoretical evaluation of our tasks and procedures against previous ones, leads us to 2 conclusions. First, our estimate slightly amends the 7-year estimate offered by the 3-Term-Paradigm, with the difference explained in terms of its greater relevance to child experiences. Second, our estimate can coexist alongside the 4-year estimate from the Extensive-Training-Paradigm. This is because, applying a recently developed "Dual-Process" conception of reasoning, anticipates that extensive-training benefits a species-general Associative System, whilst the Spatial-Paradigm and 3-Term-Paradigm can potentially index a genuinely-Deductive System which has always been the target of transitive research. Deduction allows us to engage in quite complex problem-solving activities, but may sometimes form part of more routine unconscious or automatic thinking (Deneault & Ricard, 2006;Klaczynski, 2009;Muller, Sokol & Overton, 1999). Perhaps one of the most basic forms of deductive inference-making both in adults and in children is Transitive Reasoning (Bara, Bucciarelli & Lombardo, 2000;Halford, Wilson & Phillips, 1998;Lazareva & Wasserman, 2010). A child is said to possess transitive reasoning when he or she can deduce a latent relationship between two items (say A and C), after being given information about the relationship of each of these items to a third item (B) that just happens to be intermediate between the other two in some respect (Lee & Freire, 2003;Rabinowitz, Grant, Howe & Walsh, 1994).Our transitive reasoning capacity is said to be important for acquiring many cognitive concepts (see Krackhardt & Kilduff, 1999). It is also an integral part of children's educational progression, such that "in history class, one has to determine which event or personality preceded another; in geography, altitudes are represented by different colors; in geometry, measurement operations are performed;..." (Artman & Cahan, 1993, pp.753). Transitivity even features i...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 64%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Transitivity for height versus speed: To what extent do the under-7s really have a transitive capacity?

Wright

Robertson

Hadfield

2011

Thinking & Reasoning

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“…heavy) and its negation (not heavy). Comparisons involving the ' not heavy' end-point or items associated with this anchor through proximity (Breslow, 1981), add to the RT through the operation of negation. The more likely it is that a decision can be made without negation-by using the positive, (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Growth of Cognitive Structure in Monkeys and Men

McGonigle¹,

Chalmers²

2002

Animal Cognition and Sequential Behavior

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“…In order to avoid such memory deficits, they trained children on the premises of transitive inferences and found that even 4-year-olds could solve the respective problems under these conditions. A number of subsequent researchers also re-ported transitive reasoning in preschool children (see reviews by Breslow, 1981: Halford, 1982Thayer & Collyer, 1978). Although Piaget denied that age was a criterion for his cognitive developmental stages {e.g.. Piaget in Bringuier, 1980), these results were apparently discrepant with his own findings and cast doubt on both his explanations of transitive reasoning and his methods for assessing it.…”

Section: Transitivity In \Bung Childrenmentioning

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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Reevaluation of the literature on the development of transitive inferences.

Cited by 124 publications

References 52 publications

Transitivity for height versus speed: To what extent do the under-7s really have a transitive capacity?

Transitivity for height versus speed: To what extent do the under-7s really have a transitive capacity?

The Growth of Cognitive Structure in Monkeys and Men

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

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