Factors Affecting Efficiency of Inductive Reasoning
In administering tests of inductive reason ing in which the subjects worked successively with three dimensional objects, pictures, and words it was observed that printed material could be used as a medium for investigating various aspects of the reasoning process in young children (2, 6). This observation led to the construction of a paper and pencil test which was administered to a group of children and which was subsequently revised and readministered on the basis of the re sults of the preliminary investigation. This report presents the results obtained from both of these paper and pencil tests. The idea of assembling a series of tests graded in difficulty operated in the selection of the individual sub-tests to be included in the first battery. Consequently the test be gan with the simplest possible form of an inductive problem?the association between a single cause and a single effect. In succes sive parts the number of possible causes was increased and negative as well as positive in stances of the effect were introduced. By such changes the test was gradually built up until the problems were similar to those de scribed by Mill in his discussion of the Method of Agreement and the Joint Method of Agreement and Difference (4). Thereafter the problems involved the use of more ab stract concepts. As will be shown later some of the prob lems of the first pencil and paper test were too simple for any child who can read. Con sequently these easier problems were elim inated and only the problems of the Joint Method type were retained. Within this framework two factors, viz., number of an tecedents and level of abstractness, were varied in a systematic fashion, so that their effect on reasoning could be studied. B. Composite Test of Inductive Reasoning