 |
| Research article summary (published 29 Apr 2002): |
Children's and adults' evaluation of the certainty of deductive inferences, inductive inferences, and guesses.
Full Abstract
Two experiments investigated kindergarten through fourth-grade children's and adults' (N = 128) ability to (1) evaluate the certainty of deductive inferences, inductive inferences, and guesses; and (2) explain the origins of inferential knowledge. When judging their own cognitive state, children in first grade and older rated deductive inferences as more certain than guesses; but when judging another person's knowledge, children did not distinguish valid inferences from invalid inferences and guesses until fourth grade. By third grade, children differentiated their own deductive inferences from inductive inferences and guesses, but only adults both differentiated deductive inferences from inductive inferences and differentiated inductive inferences from guesses. Children's recognition of their own inferences may contribute to the development of knowledge about cognitive processes, scientific reasoning, and a constructivist epistemology.
Learn Faster Today Improve your study skills
Author information
Author/s: Pillow, Bradford H (BH);
Affiliation: Department of Psychology, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb 60115, USA. pillow(-atsign-)niu.edu
Journal and publication information
Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article
Journal: Child development (Child Dev), published in United States. (Language: eng)
Reference: -2002 May-Jun; vol 73 (issue 3) : pp 779-92
Dates: Created 2002/05/31; Completed 2002/11/19; Revised 2006/11/15;
PMID: 12038551, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)
Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.
External Links for this article (including full text providers, if available):
Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.
This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.
MeSH headings (categories)
This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.
Related articles
This article has not been indexed for related articles as yet, however you can still use the live related article search links below.
See a large map of 100+ related articles.