Syllogistic reasoning and belief-bias inhibition in school children: evidence from a negative priming paradigm.
Research on deductive reasoning in adolescents and adults has shown that errors in deductive logic are not necessarily due to a lack of logical ability but can stem from an executive failure to inhibit biases. Few studies have examined this dissociation in children. Here, we used a negative priming paradigm with 64 children (8-10 years old) to test the role of cognitive inhibition in syllogisms with belief-bias effects. On trials where negative priming was predicted, results were as follows: For the first syllogism (A), the strategy 'unbelievable-equals-invalid' had to be inhibited. The logic of the syllogism led to affirming a conclusion inconsistent with one's knowledge of the world, such as 'All elephants are light.' For the second syllogism (B), one's real-world knowledge and the syllogism's logic were congruent but the latter required affirming exactly what had been inhibited for A (i.e. that elephants are heavy). A negative priming effect on the A-B sequence was reflected in a significant drop in reasoning performance on B. This supports the idea that during cognitive development, inhibitory control is required for success on syllogisms where beliefs and logic interfere.
Moutier
Sylvain
S
UMR 6194, CNRS, CEA, Universities of Paris-5 and Caen, Institute of Psychology, Sorbonne, France. sylvain.moutier@paris5.sirbonne.fr
Plagne-Cayeux
Stéphanie
S
Melot
Anne-Marie
AM
Houdé
Olivier
O
D001290:Attitude; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008128:Logic; D008297:Male; D010465:Perception