ON THE EFFECTS OF TRAINING INDUCTIVE REASONING - HOW FAR DOES IT TRANSFER AND HOW LONG DO THE EFFECTS PERSIST

Using the same program, two training experiments have been conducted i n a Dutch and in a German elementary school. The common expectation wa s that training in inductive reasoning would transfer both on intellig ence tests measuring inductive reasoning and on math performance. Furt hermore, it was expected that the training effects would persist for a t least some months after training had ended. In experiment I (N=34), a rather short training period turned out to be effective with respect to the intelligence test performance but not with respect to math per formance. In experiment 2 (N=23), the amount of training in inductive reasoning was systematically varied. It could be shown that transfer o n intelligence test as well as on math performance was linearly depend ent on the amount of prior training. The training effects were found t o persist between four and nine months after training.