Two selection and nine evaluation hypothesis testing tasks varying systematically with respect to causality, response alternatives, and context continuity were administered to two samples of adults (N=35; N=32). It was to determine effects of these variables and the degree to which subjects reasoned with material conditional, biconditional,…

The relationship between characteristics of academic disciplines and intellectual traits of undergraduates was studied. Subject matter areas were structurally reflected in the university as department or major field groupings. A total of 2,278 students, graduating in either 1969-1970 or 1979-1980, were administered the 14 scales of the Omnibus…

Compared laboratory and naturalistic content influences on formal reasoning tasks of 90 13-, 15-, and 17-year-olds, focusing on tasks requiring ability to control variables. Results indicate that 8 to 20 percent of performance variance was associated with task content. Content effects were also shown to reflect expectations about task variables.…

Students (N=49) enrolled in a physics course for elementary teachers were evaluated for their abilities to use: (1) combinatorial logic; (2) separation and control of variables; (3) proportional reasoning; and (4) reciprocal implications. Performance of four Piagetian tasks during interviews was treated as a measure of the degree to which students…

A model for the development of scientific reasoning in adolescents was formulated largely upon the basis of Piagetian theory. Included as potential determinants of scientific reasoning were: experience; age; locus of control; field dependence-independence (FID); rigidity/flexibility; intelligence quotient (IQ); and sex. Causal relationships…

A model for the development of scientific reasoning in adolescents was formulated largely upon the basis of Piagetian theory. Included as potential determinants of scientific reasoning were experience, age, locus of control, field independence-dependence (FID), rigidity/flexibility, intelligence quotient (IQ), and sex. Causal relationships between…

The results of studies that examined the logical reasoning of secondary students in Jamaica are analyzed. A logical reasoning test was administered to 205 Jamaican students in grades 7, 9, and 11. Also analyzed were data collected using the same instrument on three other groups of Jamaican students in grades 7, 8, 9, and 10. As expected, test…

Reported are results of a study designed to determine developmental patterns in proportional reasoning and to determine if these patterns are similar regardless of educational level and regardless of problem context. Data from 2282 subjects in grades 6-13 were collected using the Test of Logical Thinking (TOLT), and then examined for subjects who…