THE SOLVING OF THREE‐TERM SERIES PROBLEMS

Abstract

Sixteen problems of the three‐term series type are presented to each of 64 11‐year‐old children and 32 16‐year‐olds. The older children show evidence of solving these problems by articulated sequences of analytical judgments which accord with the varying logical structures of the problems, show no influence of atmosphere effect, show marked practice effects in progressing from one problem to the next, and solve problems involving the relatively abstract ‘happier‐sadder’ relation as quickly as identically structured problems involving the relatively concrete ‘taller‐shorter’ relation. In contrast, the younger children show but slight evidence of being influenced differentially by variations in logical structure, are susceptible to atmosphere effect, show smaller practice effects, and solve ‘taller‐shorter’ problems more rapidly than ‘happier‐sadder’ problems. The results are interpreted as demonstrating that increasing age brings increasing appreciation of the structural characteristics of series as such, together with increasing skill in dealing with serial relations which are progressively more remote from the perceptual‐motor level of behaviour.