Biomedical subjects

R B Ricco

Publications and source records attributed to R B Ricco.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1997

The development of proof construction in middle childhood.

In attempting to solve a problem in the fewest possible moves, one must determine moves that are individually necessary and jointly sufficient. This amounts to constructing a demonstration or proof of the solution. The development of proof construction was explored through two problems-a hidden figure task and a variant of the game "Mastermind" (J. Piaget (1987). Possibility and necessity: Vol. 2. The role of necessity in cognitive development. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press). In Experiment 1, children 11 to 12 years of age distinguished necessary from nonnecessary moves and recognized when sufficient evidence had been established to determine a solution to a greater extent than children 7 to 8 years of age. In a second experiment, the original hidden-figure task was modified with the aim of reducing its information-processing demands. The performance of 8- to 9-year-olds on the modified problems was comparable to, and in certain respects surpassed, the performance of the oldest children on the original problem in Experiment 1. Seven-year-olds did not perform well on the modified problems even with training. Results are discussed in terms of theory and research on children's understanding of necessity and sufficiency.

Child↗

PubMed1997

Children's judgments of certainty and uncertainty on a problem where the possible solutions differ in likelihood.

In the present study, the authors adapted a task introduced by Piaget (1987) to assess children's appreciation of indeterminacy under conditions in which the possible solutions to a problem are not equally likely. The task involved identifying or predicting the number of chips that must be drawn from a box in order to determine its contents with certainty. Children 7 through 12 years old were presented with this task and with Pieraut-Le Bonniec's (1980) box task (a standard measure of the ability to distinguish determinate from indeterminate conditions). The tasks produced parallel developmental functions, although there was some indication that appreciating indeterminacy was easier on Piaget's problem than on the standard task. Information about likelihoods did not influence children's judgments of certainty and uncertainty. In general, recognizing that a problem is determinate precedes recognition of indeterminacy, which, in turn, precedes success at predicting the moves needed to establish certainty on a problem.

Age Factors↗

PubMed1995

Proof construction: adolescent development from inductive to deductive problem-solving strategies.

Inductive and deductive approaches to the construction of problem-solving proofs were examined using a task that requires the discovery of a geometrical figure hidden behind a series of covers. It was proposed that during adolescence, with the acquisition of a formal reasoning competence (as measured by Overton's [1990] version of Wason's selection task), there would be a transition from inductive to deductive proof construction strategies. One hundred adolescents were assessed on both the problem-solving proof task and the reasoning competence is associated with taking a deductive approach to proof construction. Formal reasoners tend to construct a proof based on the use of a falsification strategy as demonstrated by their search for disconfirming instances. A nonformal level of competence on the other hand is associated with inductive approaches. In this situation nonformal subjects tend to employ a verification strategy as demonstrated by the generation of redundant information. Results support the hypothesis that there is a cognitive developmental progression from an inductive approach to the construction of proofs to a deductive approach.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1992

Operativity and the superordinate categorization of artifacts.

Relations between typical and atypical exemplars of superordinate categories are low in figurative similarity, i.e., similarity based in appearance or in spatial/temporal context. Operativity, as an emergent competence to overcome figurative cues and establish nonfigurative relations, might be expected to contribute to superordinate categorization. The present study assessed the relative consistency of age-equivalent preoperational and concrete-operational groups of first graders across two categorization tasks employing color drawings of exemplars of superordinate artifact categories. Concrete-operational subjects categorized two exemplars together on a Sample-Match Task if they had previously included both exemplars under the same category on a Category-Membership Task. In addition to membership in the same category, preoperational subjects required that both exemplars be typical before categorizing them together on the Sample-Match Task. The cognitive levels did not differ in their category membership decisions. Results are discussed in terms of both utilization and acquisition of superordinate knowledge.

Attention↗