The Development of Thinking and Reasoning

The Development of Thinking and Reasoning

by Pierre Barrouillet, Caroline Gauffroy
Released June 2013
Publisher(s): Psychology Press
ISBN: 9781135083946

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Book description

Thinking and reasoning are key activities for human beings. In this book a distinguished set of contributors provides a wide readership with up-to-date scientific advances in the developmental psychology of thinking and reasoning, both at the theoretical and empirical levels.

The first part of the book illustrates how modern approaches to the study of thinking and reasoning have gone beyond the Piagetian legacy: through the investigation of avenues previously not explored, and by demonstrating that young children have higher capacities than was assumed within the Piagetian tradition. The second part focuses upon theoretical and empirical investigations of the interplay between logic and intuition in reasoning and decision making, and how these forms of thinking evolve with age, through the general framework of what is known as dual-process theories. Contrary to Piaget’s claim, it becomes apparent that elaborate adult reasoning could rely on some form of intuition.

The Development of Thinking and Reasoning provides psychologists, educators and everyone interested in child development with an integrated and up-to-date series of chapters, written by prominent specialists in the areas of thinking, reasoning, and decision making.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title
  3. Copyright
  4. Contents
  5. List of illustrations
  6. List of contributors
  7. 1 Introduction – from Piaget to dual-process theories: the complexities of thinking and reasoning development
    1. Thinking and reasoning beyond Piaget’s conceptions
    2. Dual-process approaches
  8. PART I Thinking and reasoning: beyond Piaget’s conceptions
    1. 2 Epistemic cognition and development
      1. The literatures of epistemic cognition
      2. Concepts
      3. Propositions
      4. Relations to other work
      5. Suggestions for research
      6. Conclusion
    2. 3 The development of the rational imagination: how children create counterfactual alternatives to reality
      1. Introduction
      2. Counterfactual thoughts
      3. Thinking about reality and its alternatives
      4. The counterfactual perspective
      5. Thinking about what is not there
      6. Pictures and possibilities
      7. Mental images and possibilities
      8. Counterfactual creation skills
    3. 4 The development of reasoning by analogy
      1. Early research on the development of analogical reasoning
      2. The role of relational knowledge in solving item analogies
      3. Relational knowledge and the ‘relational similarity constraint’
      4. Problem-solving paradigms for studying analogy
      5. The role of explicit goal structure
      6. The role of functional fixedness
      7. Analogies as tools for educational innovation
      8. Analogies in foundational domains
      9. Inhibition and the efficiency of retrieval as constraints on analogical reasoning
      10. Analogical reasoning in infancy?
      11. Analogies in reading and mathematics
      12. Conclusion
    4. 5 The development of abstract conditional reasoning
      1. How do different theories account for abstract reasoning?
      2. Development of concrete and abstract conditional reasoning: empirical data
      3. A representational redescriptive model of abstract reasoning
  9. PART II Dual-processes approaches
    1. 6 Dual processes and mental models in the development of conditional reasoning
      1. The mental model theory of conditionals
      2. A mental model theory for the development of conditional reasoning
      3. Evaluating the truth-value of conditionals
      4. Pragmatic and semantic modulations
      5. Evaluating the probability of conditionals
      6. Dual-process accounts of conditional reasoning: the test of development
      7. Conclusions
    2. 7 Heuristics and biases: insights from developmental studies
      1. Developmental trends in heuristic reasoning
      2. The factors that affect the prevalence of heuristic reasoning: knowledge, cognitive capacity, instructions, and thinking dispositions
      3. The study
      4. Concluding comments
    3. 8 Culture and developments in heuristics and biases from preschool through adolescence: challenges and implications for social development
      1. Introduction
      2. Dual-process theories: criticisms and revisions
      3. Issues and potential controversies in developmental heuristics and biases research
      4. Emerging evidence, the age-knowledge issue, and heuristics during adolescence
      5. Culture and early indications of heuristics and biases
      6. Conclusions
    4. 9 Intuition, reasoning and development: a fuzzy-trace theory approach
      1. Introduction
      2. Content and cognitive options
      3. Worked examples: reasoning about risks, probabilities, and consequences
      4. Conclusions and overview
    5. 10 Dual processes in the development of reasoning: the memory side of the theory
      1. False memory: definition and measurement
      2. Theoretical bases for predicting developmental reversals in false memory
      3. Developmental reversals in false memory
      4. Concluding comments
  10. Index

Product information

  • Title: The Development of Thinking and Reasoning
  • Author(s): Pierre Barrouillet, Caroline Gauffroy
  • Release date: June 2013
  • Publisher(s): Psychology Press
  • ISBN: 9781135083946