Is it formal if it's not physics? (the influence of content on formal reasoning)

Formal reasoning has been studied extensively with tasks that have physics or laboratory content. This study compares laboratory and naturalistic content influences on formal reasoning tasks. Ninety 13-, 15-, and 17-year olds received both laboratory and naturalistic content tasks which required ability to control variables. Expectations about the variables in each task were measured. Results revealed that 8 to 20% of the variance in performance was associated with task content. Content effects were shown to reflect expectations about task variables.

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