CATEGORY-BASED INFERENCES BY RELATING PREMISE TO CONCLUSION CATEGORIES IN CHILDREN AND ADULTS

Category-based coordinate inferences with the basic-level terms in bot h the premise and the conclusion statements were examined based on the assumptions that the subjects make inferences by relating the premise to the conclusion terms and that the inferences are Facilitated by pr oviding information which relates the two terms. In Experiment 1, when the taxonomic or the functional information common to three inference tasks was provided before the premise statement, adults' (N=36) infer ences were facilitated significantly by the taxonomic and slightly by the functional information, but children's (N=36) inferences were not facilitated. In Experiment 2 the taxonomic or the functional informati on which is specific to each inference task was provided between the t wo statements or before the premise statements. Children's(N=115) infe rences were significantly facilitated when the taxonomic information w as given between the two statements. Children made inferences more eff iciently when the information was provided between the two statements than when provided before the premise statements. Thus children's coor dinate inferences depend on the position and the type of information w hich relates the premise to the conclusion category terms.