Acta Psychologica Sinica

Abstract

Attempt was made to investigate the development of ability for the adequate conditional syllogistic reasoning with the inter-individual differences in school children, three deductive syllogistic tasks with verbal materials were individually presented to the subjects at age 9, and at ages 12 and 15. The statements of each task contained different propositions, all of which referred to the experimental contexts available to all school children. The results were shown that: (1) Three developmental levels of the ability for the syllogistic reasoning were identified: Levels 1 (level of occurrence) — The children at this level could only solve some parts of the tasks (such as reasoning the form of affirmation of antecedents). The syllogistic reasoning depended on the sustenance of the perceptual experiences; Level 2 (transitional level) — The abilities of combinatorial proposition and operational thinking were enhanced at this level of children, however the syllogistic reasoning was frequently constrained by the concrete context of the tasks; Level 3 (mature level) — The ability of assumed thinking in coordination with the ability of deductive reasoning were developed. The “forms” were liberated from the contexts in this level. The syllogistic reasoning better accorded with the logic rules as well. (2) The same subject and the subjects at different ages mastered four basic logic rules in relation with deductive reasoning investigated with different sequences, which depended on the contexts and the natures of the tasks, also on the levels of operational thinking of the individuals. The developmental levels of the subjects for syllogistic reasoning were affected by the qualities of schooling and family education, also by the levels of intelligence of the subjects.

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