Influence of language on solving three-term series problems.

Three linguistic processes have been previously proposed to account for the influence of language on deductive reasoning. To test for these processes, 100 5"s were each asked to solve 64 different forms of the three-term series problem (e.g., "If John isn't as bad as Bill, and Pete isn't as good as Bill, then who is worst?"). The 6"s were allowed only 10 sec. per problem. The kind and relative number of errors SB made support the existence of an implicit problem solving strategy containing the three proposed linguistic processes. The strategy consists of (a) interpreting the propositions and question of a problem in terms of their deep structure relations, (b) retaining the information in this form, and (c) later searching memory for information that is congruent in deep structure with the information asked for in the question. For some problems, this strategy leads to longer solution times, hence more errors. For many problems, it also leads to preliminary solutions that show up as specific errors.

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