ERIC Number: EJ965435
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2012-Jun
Pages: 12
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0022-0965
EISSN: N/A
Belief Inhibition in Children's Reasoning: Memory-Based Evidence
Steegen, Sara; Neys, Wim De
Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, v112 n2 p231-242 Jun 2012
Adult reasoning has been shown as mediated by the inhibition of intuitive beliefs that are in conflict with logic. The current study introduces a classic procedure from the memory field to investigate belief inhibition in 12- to 17-year-old reasoners. A lexical decision task was used to probe the memory accessibility of beliefs that were cued during thinking on syllogistic reasoning problems. Results indicated an impaired memory access for words associated with misleading beliefs that were cued during reasoning if syllogisms had been solved correctly. This finding supports the claim that even for younger reasoners, correct reasoning is mediated by inhibitory processing as soon as intuitive beliefs conflict with logical considerations. (Contains 3 tables and 2 figures.)
Descriptors: Evidence, Conflict, Inhibition, Memory, Logical Thinking, Task Analysis, Thinking Skills, Beliefs, Adolescents, Age Differences, Psychology, Neurological Impairments, Cognitive Processes
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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
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A