THE EFFECTS OF A FANTASY CONTEXT, AN OBLIGATION SCHEMA, AND A RATIONALE ON CHILDRENS CONDITIONAL REASONING

Authors
Citation
Wl. Seier, THE EFFECTS OF A FANTASY CONTEXT, AN OBLIGATION SCHEMA, AND A RATIONALE ON CHILDRENS CONDITIONAL REASONING, British journal of developmental psychology, 12, 1994, pp. 507-522
Citations number
41
Categorie Soggetti
Psychology, Developmental
ISSN journal
0261510X
Volume
12
Year of publication
1994
Part
4
Pages
507 - 522
Database
ISI
SICI code
0261-510X(1994)12:<507:TEOAFC>2.0.ZU;2-W
Abstract
Recent studies have shown that under certain circumstances, pre-formal operational children can solve conditional reasoning problems that re quire looking for potentially falsifying cases. The present study teas ed apart the influences of fantasy context, an obligation rule, and a rationale, which typically were confounded in previous research. Subje cts were 165 10- and 11-year-olds, who were asked to solve a modified version of Wason's selection task. Conditions differed with respect to the context supplied in the problem. Significantly more children in t he fantasy than the non-fantasy conditions gave correct anticipatory r esponses, gave correct global solutions, and were able to solve the pr oblem quickly. Neither an obligation rule nor a rationale had any sign ificant effect, unless presented in conjunction with a fantasy context . Results are discussed in terms of the important role of fantasy in d iscouraging reliance on empirical knowledge in reasoning about conditi onals.