Developmental Study on the Acquisition Process of Disjunctive Logical Reasoning

1993 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 04610087
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Psychology
• Research Institution: National Institute for Educational Research
• Principal Investigator: NAKAGAKI Akira NIER, Research on Teaching and Counselling, Psycological Development, Chief, 教育指導研究部・発達研究室, 室長 (00124181)
• Project Period (FY): 1992 – 1993
• Keywords: Logical reasoning / Disjunctive reasoning / Disjunctive four-card-problem / Disjunctive syllogism / Formal operation

Research Abstract

In this study, developmental processes of disjunctive logical reasoning were investigated. Two reasoning tasks concering disjunctive sentence, that is, a disjunctive four-card-problem in the first year of this research project and a disjunctive syllogism task in the second year, were administered to the second, fourth, sixth and eighth granders, 20 students in each grade.
The results of both tasks showed that most of the lower graders were unable to access these tasks and even the sixth or eighth graders had much difficulty in reasoning logically. As predictedat the first stage of this project, disjunctive logical reasoning skills were acquired in preadolescence, namely, at the stage of formal operations, and not in childhood. Based on these results, it was concluded that disjunctive logical reasoning is not a precocial reasoning schema as indicated by Braine & Rumain (1981), but one of late-acquired formal operations as predicted by Inhelder & Piaget (1955).