THE DEVELOPMENT OF LOGICAL PROBLEM- SOLVING STRATEGIES

Independent groups of both normal and bright children between the ages of 9 and 16 were given a series of 8 relatively content-free diagnostic problems. Their information-gathering behavior was assessed by means of a strategy score. A plot of strategy score as a function of mental age yields a smooth negatively accelerated growth curve which starts at a "random" level for 9-year-olds of normal IQ and approaches theoretically optimal performance as an asymptote. Comparison of group learning curves indicates that the improvement cannot be explained in terms of differential learning rate. Rather, the increase in logical information-gathering strategy with increasing mental age is best described in terms of an increase in the number of Ss who develop and use a logical strategy. This explanation was supported by analysis of a number of additional response measures. It was suggested that, for individual Ss, development of a logical strategy may proceed in an all-or-none fashion, possibly at more than one level of abstraction.