Developmental analysis of the conditional reasoning abilities of primary-grade children

Administered a conditional reasoning test to 36 1st-3rd graders. Each child was tested individually with a concrete and a verbal presentation of the test items. After his response to each test item, the child was asked to explain the reason for his response. An analysis of variance of the number of correct judgments showed significant main effects for Grade Level, Mode of Presentation, and Principle, and a significant Grade Level * Principle interaction. An examination of the explanations for correct judgments revealed that children's problem-solving behaviors varied according to both testing session and principle of inference. (20 ref)