Hypothesis Testing on a Proportional Reasoning Task by Children at Different Piagetian Stage Levels

The relationship between 7-, 9-, and 11-year-old children's performance on a battery of selected Piagetian measures and on a proportional reasoning task was examined. The proportional reasoning task, modeled after an hypothesis-testing probe procedure, was devised to identify the hypotheses and strategies children use when making proportional judgments. As expected, a strong relationship between stage level and (1) the complexity of hypotheses used, (2) the use of the proportional hypothesis, and (3) the overall use of logical hypotheses was found. Generally, only formal-operational children responded proportionally. Contrary to expectations, children were not responsive to feedback, i.e., they tended to generate and maintain the same hypothesis across trials regardless of feedback. The role of children's cognitive limitations, as well as how salient the feedback was, were discussed as possible explanations for this finding. Age and sex differences on the proportional reasoning task also were found. Possible directions for extension of this study to older children and adolescents were discussed.