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.
UMR 6194, CNRS, CEA, Universities of Paris-5 and Caen, Institute of Psychology, Sorbonne, France. sylvain.moutier@paris5.sirbonne.fr
Sylvain
S
Moutier
Stéphanie
S
Plagne-Cayeux
Anne-Marie
AM
Melot
Olivier
O
Houdé
D001290:Attitude; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008128:Logic; D008297:Male; D010465:Perception