ERIC Number: EJ737805
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2006-Jul
Pages: 25
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0022-0965
EISSN: N/A
Children's Development of Analogical Reasoning: Insights from Scene Analogy Problems
Richland, Lindsey E.; Morrison, Robert G.; Holyoak, Keith J.
Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, v94 n3 p249-273 Jul 2006
We explored how relational complexity and featural distraction, as varied in scene analogy problems, affect children's analogical reasoning performance. Results with 3- and 4-year-olds, 6- and 7-year-olds, 9- to 11-year-olds, and 13- and 14-year-olds indicate that when children can identify the critical structural relations in a scene analogy problem, development of their ability to reason analogically interacts with both relational complexity and featural distraction. Error patterns suggest that children are more likely to select a distracting object than to make a relational error for problems that present both possibilities. This tendency decreases with age, and older children make fewer errors overall. The results suggest that changes in analogical reasoning with age depend on the interplay among increases in relational knowledge, the capacity to integrate multiple relations, and inhibitory control over featural distraction.
Descriptors: Logical Thinking, Error Patterns, Cognitive Development, Children, Early Adolescents, Cognitive Ability, Age Differences, Child Development
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
IES Funded: Yes
Grant or Contract Numbers: R305H030141