Developmental and Individual Differences in Verbal Analogical Reasoning.

GOLDMAN, SUSAN R.; PELLEGRINO, JAMES W.; PARSEGHIAN, PATRICIA; and SALLIS, RrrA. Developmental and Individual Differences in Verbal Analogical Reasoning. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1982, 53, 550-559. Two studies were conducted with 8and 10-year-old children to examine sources of age and skill differences in verbal analogical reasoning. Multiple tasks related to a model of analogy solution were used to derive outcome measures for information processing in the stem and alternative set of typical verbal items. Developmental and individual differences were a function of (a) the probability of successful execution of initial inference and application processes, (b) resistance to distractor interference, and (c) recognition of correct answers given incorrect prior inference and application. Processes which involve sets of relations contributed more to skill differences than inference processes on single pairs of terms. More skilled reasoners, regardless of age, were also better able to verbalize the constraints inherent to analogical reasoning. The pattern of age and skill differences is discussed in terms of the child's problem space for the analogy task and possible differences in task understanding that lead to strategy and process differences in older vs. younger and skilled vs. less skilled reasoners.