ISSN 0439-755X
CN 11-1911/B

›› 2000, Vol. 32 ›› Issue (03): 269-275.

### A STUDY ON INTER-INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES FOR THE DEVELOPMENT ABILITY OF ADEQUATE CONDITIONAL SYLLOGISTIC REASONING IN 12 YEAR-OLDS

Fang Fuxi; Tang Hong(Institute of Psychology, CAS Beijing 100101)Liu Pengzhi(Middle School Attached to the People's University of China, Beijing 100086)

• Published:2000-09-25 Online:2000-09-25

Abstract: The purpose of the present study was to investigate the inter-individual differences for the developmental ability of adequate conditional syllogistic reasoning in 12 year-olds. The samples were randomly stratified according to the academic achievements of mathematics. The subjects were in total 40 school children divided into two groups : High ability group of math and general ability group of math with equal number of subjects.The subjects were individually tested with three types of tasks of syllogistic reasoning with verbal materials. Type 1 task referred an experimental context available to all school children; Type 2 task was based on a counterintuitive statement beyond concrete experiences; Type 3 task included abstractly a symbolized content. The results showed that four categories of subjects corresponding to four different levels of syllogistic reasoning were identified in terms of the statistical analysis for the verbal performances of the subjects. The subjects of the general ability group spread out on those four levels,which indicated that their ability of syllogistic reasoning was frequently constrained by the concrete contexts of the tasks, their pefformances could not free themselves from the perceptual experiences.However, the subjects of the high ability group were convergent to the highest level which was characterized by mature formal operational minking, the ability of assumed thinking in coordination with the ability of deductive reasoning were fully developed. The 'forms' liberated from the contexts. The ability of syllogistic reasoning correlated with the mathematical achievement and the levels of intelligence.