Semantic is associated with the relationship between symbol, reference, and the problem's context involved in the problem-solving process which also involves reasoning and decision-making. Hence, this study describes the characteristics of students' semantic reasoning to solve the double discounts problem. 51 high school students in Sidoarjo…

In the context of an analytical geometry, this study considers the mathematical understanding and activity of seven students analyzed simultaneously through two knowledge frameworks: (1) the Van Hiele levels (Van Hiele, 1986, 1999) and register and domain knowledge (Hibert, 1988); and (2) three action frameworks: the SOLO taxonomy (Biggs, 1999;…

A study had been conducted in qualitative design employing phenomenology approach to examine the cognitive basis and the semantic structure of phenomena based reasoning of lower secondary school students in Ambon. The data of the study were collected by using a test. Phenomena stimulus of science was given to the informants in the form of…

Attempts to ascertain whether class inclusion behavior is enhanced when children are first asked to compare the subclasses appearing in the class inclusion task and whether such an effect could be due to simple comparisons among the vocabulary terms differentiating the questions. Subjects were second, third, and fourth grade children. (BD/BR)

A study investigating developmental differences in the ability to reason with conditional propositions used five variations of Wason's selection task to assess conditional reasoning in 132 eighth, tenth, and twelfth grade adolescents. In addition to examining developmental differences, the study had as an objective to examine the role of semantic…

Reprinted from the November 1971 issue of the Journal of Thought.'' (DD)

This paper is a theoretical discussion of several functions of knowledge systems based on the idea of partial matching, that is, comparison of two or more descriptions by identification of their similarities. Several knowledge system functions are described in terms of partial or best matchings including analogical reasoning, inductive inference,…

Three experiments investigated children's typical errors in judging the truth of universally quantified conditional sentences containing "P and not-Q." The error survived on sentences referring to particular things. For second- and fifth-graders, the error survived for nonuniversally quantified conditionals, and for second-graders, the…

Discusses critical thinking as the process of moving fluently among abstraction levels. Defines three components involved in fluency of movement: (1) knowledge, or an awareness of the existence of abstraction levels; (2) payoff, or the reason for acquiring fluency; and (3) timing, or a consciousness of abstraction levels at a given time and place.…

A theory of deductive reasoning is presented for inferences that depend on multiply quantified premises. It is argued that reasoners construct mental models based on their knowledge of the meaning of the quantifiers. Three experiments, with 54 university students and adults, corroborated the theory. (SLD)

Evidence is provided to refute the suggestion, made by Macnamara et al. (1976), that four-year-old children perform logical operations corresponding to formal logic upon the sentential components of implicative verbs to produce indirect implications. It is argued that children use past knowledge plus additional premises to derive indirect…

Presents a rebuttal to Hidi and Hildyard's (1976) criticism of Macnamara et al.'s (1976) assertion regarding the ability of four-year-old children to grasp implicatives and presuppositions. (AM)

WRITTEN TO IMPLEMENT THE PRINCIPLES SET FORTH IN "DESIGN FOR THINKING" (SEE TE 000 457.), THIS BOOK DEALS WITH WORDS AS TOOLS OF THOUGHT AND WITH THE PROBLEM-SOLVING FUNCTION OF LANGUAGE. CHAPTERS ARE ON (1) QUALIFICATION, CLASSIFICATION, AND ABSTRACTION, (2) SIGNS, REPRESENTATIONS, SYMBOLS, AND MATRICES, (3) ANALYSIS (BY CLASSIFICATION,…

The study examined the relation of language use and logical thought to social experience with both age and class held constant. The primary assumptions under study were: that the logic of symbolic grouping was highly sensitive to a child's experience with the objects to which that logic was applied; that the existence of diglossia in a bilingual…