Planning

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HUMAN DEVELOPMENT 1PSYCHOLOGY 3050Problem
Solving (Ch 12)
Dr. Jamie Drover SN-3094, 737-8383 e-mail --
jrdrover_at_mun.ca Winter Semester 2009
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Planning

• There are instances where preschoolers appear to
  use planning.
• Hudson et al. (1995) had 3-5-year-old children
  plan a trip to the grocery store.
• They were told about potential mishaps that could
  potentially happen and asked how they could
  prevent them.
• 5-year-olds often had plans in place to avoid
  these mishaps.

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Tower of Hanoi Problem Requires planning
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Planning

• The first move is considered to be important as
  evidence of planning.
• There is no relationship between making an
  optimal first move and successfully completing
  the task.
• This does not mean planning is not important.
• Children have to explore the boundaries of the
  rules before they can plan successfully.

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Reasoning

• A type of problem-solving that requires making an
  inference
• go beyond information given
• consider evidence and arrive at a new solution
• 3 types of reasoning
• Analogical use something you know to figure
  something you dont know
• Formal form of an argument, not its semantic
  content is critical formal logic
• Scientific hypothesis generation and testing

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Analogical Reasoning

• Using something you know to figure something you
  dont know
• involves relational mapping
• AB as C? man is to woman as boy is to ?
• Similarity relations
• Large individual differences across lifespan
  related to IQ
• Piaget formal operational skill
• Others argue for earlier signs in toddlers,
  preschoolers
• Depends on factors such as task complexity,
  knowledge, working memory capacity,
  representation
• More than reasoning per se

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Analogical Reasoning in Young Children

• Chen et al. (1997) tested infants with a complex
  Willatts-type task -- retrieve out of reach toy
• Barrier between baby and toy
• Two strings one attached to toy, one not also
  out of reach each string is on a cloth that is
  within reach
• Solution pull cloth, then pull string attached
  to toy
• parents model if baby cant do in 100 sec
• Question can they use solution to retrieve other
  toys in similar problems?
• Task (toy) 1 -- 29 correct Task 2 -- 43 Task
  3 -- 67
• efficiency (goal-directed vs trial/error)
  increased across trials
• 12 mo-olds use similarity between tasks to solve
  analogous problems

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Analogical Reasoning in Young Children

• Holyoak (1984) -- preschoolers, kindergarten
• problem move gumballs from near bowl to far
  out-of-reach bowl
• cant leave chair
• props -- paper, scissors, aluminum cane, tape,
  string
• Before solving hear story about a different but
  analogous problem and solution using props.
• 50 solve gumball problem, remainder successful
  after hint
• Success depended on perceptual similarity between
  objects in story and their objects

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Analogical Reasoning in Young Children

• Goswami (1990) relational similarity harder --
  bird nest as dog ?
• Problems must be resolved based on relational
  similarity, not perceptual similarity.
• 4-, 5-, 9-yrs perform at 59, 66, 94 correct,
  respectively

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Factors that affect analogical reasoning

• 1. Relational shift object similarity
  (perceptual) easier for young children than
  relational (more abstract) similarity
• 2. Knowledge greater familiarity with the
  problem and its domain helpful
• Need to know that some dogs live in dog-houses
• Goldilocks and Three Bears a good way to teach
  small, medium, and large relational constructs
• 3. Metacognition implicit knowledge about
  cognitive processes becomes explicit
• awareness of analogical reasoning strategies

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Formal Reasoning

• The form of an argument, not its semantic content
  is critical
• Logic, not empirical truth matters
• Content need not map onto real world
• Can reason about nonsense
• Piaget -- propositional logic, conditional
  reasoning
• formal operational achievement
• e.g., solving verbal syllogisms -- require
  deductive reasoning
• 1. Socrates was a man
• 2. All men are mortal
• 3. Socrates was mortal true or false?

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Formal Reasoning

• Propositional logic if then statements true
  or false?
• If there is a P, then there is a Q
• There is a P
• There is a Q (true or false)?
• If there is a P, then there is a Q
• There is no P
• There is no Q (true or false?)

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Formal Reasoning

• Children and adults can have difficulty with
  these
• rarely found in pre-adolescent children
• However, Hawkins (1984) -- 3 types of syllogisms
  - 4 to 5 yr
• 1. Fantasy -- imaginary characters
• Every banga is purple
• Purple animals sneeze at people
• Do bangas sneeze at people? (logic yes)
• 94 correct -- performance independent of
  knowledge -- could explain logically with
  reference to info in problem
• Had more difficulty when fantasy syllogisms not
  presented first
• Indicates fragile beginnings of formal logic

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Formal Reasoning

• 2. Congruent -- consistent with world knowledge
• Bears have big teeth
• Animals with big teeth cant read books
• Can bears read books? (no)
• 94 correct -- no reasoning needed empirical
  knowledge
• Explanations reflected that
• 3. Incongruent -- contradiction to knowledge
• Glasses bounce when they fall
• Everything that bounces is made of rubber
• Are glasses made of rubber? (logic yes)
• only 13 correct
• real world knowledge conflicts with form of
  problem -- go with former
• Study shows tenuous formal reasoning possible in
  preschoolers

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Scientific Reasoning

• Formal operational skill
• Involves generating hypotheses about how
  something works and systematically testing them
• Identify factors that affect the phenomenon --
  vary one factor at a time -- hold other factors
  constant
• e.g., pendulum problem

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Scientific Reasoning

• Four variables
• Amount of weight of the hanging object
• Length of the string
• Height from which weight is dropped
• Force of the push
• Which variable affects pendulum speed?
• (answer length of the string)
• Can only be ascertained by systematic hypothesis
  testing experimentation
• Hold three variables constant and vary the fourth

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Scientific Reasoning

• One must consider evidence when reasoning
  scientifically.
• Adolescents and children often dont do this (see
  Kuhn et al., 1988 p 359).
• Can improve with practice and training
• See CVS study (Chen Klahr, 1999 p. 359).
• 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders were trained on how to
  conduct experiments.
• Involved explicit or implicit instructions.
• They transferred these abilities to different
  tests.