"Merds that laugh don't like mushrooms": Evidence for deductive reasoning by preschoolers.

Abstract

The study examines the relationship between the development of logical processes required in deductive reasoning and their ocmsions of use. Verbal syllogism problems were presented to 4- to 5-year-old children. The problems were systematically varied in content (fantasy premises; premises incongruent with real-world events; premises congruent with real-world events), form, and order of presentation of problem types. Results indicate that young children are capable of making deductive inferences required in solving syllogism problems, and that these abilities are dis-played in constrained conditions. The relationship of the problem content to real-world knowledge and the sequence of presentation of the problem types affected the display of logical abilities. It has become increasingly apparent that cognitive abilities are revealed only in terms of organized contexts of use (e.g., Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition, 1983). In addition, measurable developmental level is situation-variable as a function of, at least. task materials, goals, and problem context