Young children's performance on the balance scale: the influence of relational complexity.

Full Abstract

Three experiments investigated the effect of complexity on children's understanding of a beam balance. In nonconflict problems, weights or distances varied, while the other was held constant. In conflict items, both weight and distance varied, and items were of three kinds:
weight dominant, distance dominant, or balance (in which neither was dominant). In Experiment 1, 2-year-old children succeeded on nonconflict-weight and nonconflict-distance problems. This result was replicated in Experiment 2, but performance on conflict items did not exceed chance. In Experiment 3, 3- and 4-year-olds succeeded on all except conflict balance problems, while 5- and 6-year-olds succeeded on all problem types. The results were interpreted in terms of relational complexity theory. Children aged 2 to 4 years succeeded on problems that entailed binary relations, but 5- and 6-year-olds also succeeded on problems that entailed ternary relations. Ternary relations tasks from other domains--transitivity and class inclusion--accounted for 93% of the age-related variance in balance scale scores.Copyright 2002 Elsevier Science (USA).

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Author information

Author/s: Halford, Graeme S (GS); Andrews, Glenda (G); Dalton, Cherie (C); Boag, Christine (C); Zielinski, Tracey (T);

Affiliation: University of Queensland, Australia. gsh@psy.uq.edu.au

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Journal of experimental child psychology (J Exp Child Psychol), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2002-Apr; vol 81 (issue 4) : pp 417-45

Dates: Created 2002/03/13; Completed 2002/05/06; Revised 2006/11/15;

PMID: 11890729, 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.

Comments and Corrections

CommentIn: J Exp Child Psychol. 2002 Apr;81(4):446-57. (PMID: 11890730)

CommentIn: J Exp Child Psychol. 2002 Apr;81(4):458-65. (PMID: 11890731)

CommentIn: J Exp Child Psychol. 2002 Apr;81(4):466-81. (PMID: 11890732)

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