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…

Examined hypothesis that experiences unique to schooling account for improved performance on invalid conditional syllogisms with age. Found small negative effect from out-of-school experiences and considerable positive effect of schooling; hence, unlike other cognitive tasks in which schooling operates in same direction as out-of-school…