In three studies, 5-10-year-old children and an adult comparison group judged another's certainty in making inductive inferences and guesses. Participants observed a puppet make strong inductions, weak inductions, and guesses. Participants either had no information about the correctness of the puppet's conclusion, knew that the puppet was correct,…

The present study focused on children's deductive reasoning when performing the Latin Square Task, an experimental task designed to explore the influence of relational complexity. Building on Birney, Halford, and Andrew's (2006) research, we created a version of the task that minimized nonrelational factors and introduced new categories of items.…

Previous research has shown that preschoolers extend labels and internal properties of objects based on those objects' causal properties, even when the causal properties conflict with the objects' perceptual appearance [Nazzi, T., & Gopnik, A. (2000). "A shift in children's use of perceptual and causal cues to categorization." "Developmental…

We investigated a test of strategic reasoning (the Windows task) that in different studies has yielded contrasting pictures of young children's executive abilities [Russell, J., Mauthner, N., Sharpe, S., & Tidswell, T. (1991). "The 'windows task' as a measure of strategic deception in preschoolers and autistic subjects." "British Journal of…

Causal reasoning is the core and basis of cognition about the objective world. This experiment studied the development of causal reasoning in 86 3.5-4.5-year-olds using a ramp apparatus with two input holes and two output holes [Frye, D., Zelazo, P. D., & Palfai, T. (1995). Theory of mind and rule-based reasoning. Cognitive Development 10,…

Two experiments are described that investigate the ability to infer the number of items in one-to-one corresponding sets for two age groups. We assess the influence of set size, the visibility of sets, and the way in which set equivalence is derived - pairing versus sharing - using a repeated-measures design. Three-year-olds are largely restricted…

We explore the immediate and longer term consequences of different types of instruction about a central topic in middle school science: the "Control of Variables Strategy" (CVS). CVS represents the procedural and conceptual basis for designing simple, unconfounded experiments, such that unambiguous causal inferences can be made. CVS…

Previous research suggests that not until about age six do children recognize that one can gain knowledge through inferential rather than direct means. Three experiments were conducted in which important task information was made more salient to determine whether children's performance in previous research on their understanding of inference had…

Two experiments on children's inferences and associative memory provided a supportive test of fuzzy-trace theory. Results indicated that false recognition of associated instances with delay declined for all children, and categorical inferences increased for older children. Verbatim memory and inferences were uncorrelated under short delay but…

Compared the use of conditional logic in adult-adult and adult-child conversation. Results indicated that conversation patterns and inferences were similar except that children made fewer independent inferences and shifts in taxonomic level and responded more frequently to socially controlling statements than did adults. (AA)