An ordinal scale for transitive reasoning by means of a deductive strategy

Transitivity tasks with either equality or inequality relations between thr ee, four, or five objects were presented by means of a successive and a sim ultaneous presentation procedure to 124 third-grade primary schoolchildren Equality tasks were easier than inequality tasks. Inequality tasks were mor e difficult when presented successively than simultaneously. Difficulty of equality tasks was not affected by presentation procedure. These findings w ere interpreted in terms of the Fuzzy Trace Theory. Successively presented inequality tasks induced more deductive reasoning strategies, and simultane ously presented tasks induced both positional and reductional strategies. A s perceptual differences between objects increased, more visual strategies were used. These conclusions were used to construct a series of nine tasks geared at i nducing transitive reasoning by means of a deductive strategy. Mokken scale analysis was used to construct an ordinal scale for transitive reasoning. Data were collected from 417 second- through fourth-grade primary school ch ildren. The scale score correlated highly with arithmetic skills and insigh t into the quantity concept. Possibilities for future transitivity research , supported by advanced psychometric methods, are discussed.