Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Reasoning01:30

Reasoning

Reasoning is the action of thinking about something in a logical, sensible way. It is integral to problem-solving, decision-making, and critical thinking. Reasoning can be inductive or deductive. Reasoning involves transforming information into conclusions, which is essential for problem-solving, decision-making, and critical thinking.
Inductive reasoning involves deriving generalizations from specific observations. This type of reasoning helps form beliefs about the world. For example,...
Inductive Reasoning00:59

Inductive Reasoning

Inductive reasoning is a form of logical thinking that uses related observations to arrive at a general conclusion. It is uncertain and operates in degrees to which the conclusions are credible. As such, inductive arguments can be weak or strong, rather than valid or invalid, and conclusions can be used to formulate testable, falsifiable hypotheses.Inductive reasoning is common in descriptive science. A life scientist makes observations and records them. This data can be qualitative or...
Deductive Reasoning01:16

Deductive Reasoning

Deductive reasoning, or deduction, is the type of logic used in hypothesis-based science. In deductive reasoning, the pattern of thinking moves in the opposite direction from inductive reasoning. It uses a general principle or law to predict specific results. From these general principles, a scientist can predict specific results that remain valid as long as the general principles are correct.For example, a researcher can make specific predictions from the hypothesis "butterflies are attracted...
Revisionist Views of Adolescent and Adult Cognition01:24

Revisionist Views of Adolescent and Adult Cognition

A revisionist approach to Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development has brought new insights that challenge and reinterpret his established ideas. Piaget proposed that the formal operational stage, emerging in adolescence, represents the culmination of cognitive maturity. During this stage, individuals are said to develop abstract thinking, engage in systematic problem-solving, and show a form of egocentrism, believing others are as preoccupied with their behavior as they are themselves.
Piaget's Stage 4 of Cognitive Development01:19

Piaget's Stage 4 of Cognitive Development

The formal operational stage, as described in Piaget's cognitive development theory, begins around age 11 and extends into adulthood. It marks the emergence of advanced cognitive abilities that differentiate adolescent and adult thinking from those of younger children. This stage is characterized by abstract reasoning, hypothetical-deductive reasoning, and a more complex understanding of self and others.
Abstract Reasoning and Hypothetical-Deductive Thinking
Unlike the concrete operational...
Piaget's Stage 3 of Cognitive Development01:17

Piaget's Stage 3 of Cognitive Development

During Piaget's concrete operational stage, from ages 7 to 11, children exhibit a marked increase in logical thinking skills, specifically in relation to tangible, real-world events. This stage is characterized by the development of several essential cognitive concepts, including conservation, reversibility, and classification, all of which support the child's evolving capacity for structured thought.
Conservation and Constancy of Quantity
A significant cognitive milestone in the concrete...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Community-Engaged Scholarship: An Interpartner Approach for Collaborative Practice.

Behavior and social issues·2026
Same author

Thinking longer versus thinking better: Deliberation versus association.

Memory & cognition·2026
Same author

Fast reasoning uses semantic activation as an intuitive cue.

Memory & cognition·2026
Same author

Do Young Human Infants Show Empathy for Others in Distress?

Developmental science·2025
Same author

Evidence for some form of abstract logical intuition.

Psychonomic bulletin & review·2025
Same author

Science at Sundance 2025<b>Heightened Scrutiny</b>, <i>Sam Feder, director,</i> 2025, 89 minutes.<b>Life After</b>, <i>Reid Davenport, director</i>, 2025, 99 minutes.<b>How to Build a Library</b>, <i>Maia Lekow and Christopher King, directors,</i> Circle and Square Productions, 2025, 103 minutes.<b>SALLY</b>, <i>Cristina Costantini, director</i>, National Geographic, 2024, 103 minutes.<b>The Perfect Neighbor</b>, <i>Geeta Gandbhir, director</i>, 2025, 96 minutes.<b>Middletown</b>, <i>Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine, directors,</i> 2025, 111 minutes.

Science (New York, N.Y.)·2025
Same journal

Music enhances associative generalization: Evidence from a memory integration task.

Memory & cognition·2026
Same journal

Video, text, and memory: An emotional verbal overshadowing effect.

Memory & cognition·2026
Same journal

Limited protective effects of multilingualism against age-related cognitive decline.

Memory & cognition·2026
Same journal

Validation of illustrated texts: Can pictures raise awareness of inconsistencies?

Memory & cognition·2026
Same journal

4I remember (and forget) your happy smiling face: Directed forgetting of emotionally expressive faces of in-group and out-group members.

Memory & cognition·2026
Same journal

Identity in the spotlight: Matching faces without overlapping features.

Memory & cognition·2026
See all related articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 28, 2026

Exploring the Role of Deontic Reasoning and World Knowledge in Wason&#180;s Selection Task
06:08

Exploring the Role of Deontic Reasoning and World Knowledge in Wason´s Selection Task

Published on: July 22, 2025

Different developmental patterns of simple deductive and probabilistic inferential reasoning.

Henry Markovits1, Valerie Thompson

  • 1Department of Psychology, Université du Québec du Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada. markovits.henry@uqam.ca

Memory & Cognition
|October 18, 2008
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Children as young as 6 can make probabilistic conditional inferences. Categorical reasoning improves with age, while probabilistic reasoning develops earlier, showing distinct developmental paths in children's thinking.

More Related Videos

The Adventures of Fundi Intervention Based on the Cognitive and Emotional Processing in Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder Patients
05:48

The Adventures of Fundi Intervention Based on the Cognitive and Emotional Processing in Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder Patients

Published on: June 12, 2020

Examining Recall Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood Using the Elicited Imitation Paradigm
06:35

Examining Recall Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood Using the Elicited Imitation Paradigm

Published on: April 28, 2016

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 28, 2026

Exploring the Role of Deontic Reasoning and World Knowledge in Wason&#180;s Selection Task
06:08

Exploring the Role of Deontic Reasoning and World Knowledge in Wason´s Selection Task

Published on: July 22, 2025

The Adventures of Fundi Intervention Based on the Cognitive and Emotional Processing in Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder Patients
05:48

The Adventures of Fundi Intervention Based on the Cognitive and Emotional Processing in Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder Patients

Published on: June 12, 2020

Examining Recall Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood Using the Elicited Imitation Paradigm
06:35

Examining Recall Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood Using the Elicited Imitation Paradigm

Published on: April 28, 2016

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Development
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Reasoning and Decision Making

Background:

  • Understanding how children develop reasoning skills is crucial for educational and psychological theories.
  • Previous research has explored conditional reasoning but often without distinguishing between categorical and probabilistic contexts.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the development of counterexample-based and probabilistic reasoning in children aged 6, 7, and 9.
  • To differentiate between categorical and probabilistic conditional inferences in childhood.
  • To examine the relationship between reasoning strategies and age.

Main Methods:

  • Three studies were conducted involving conditional (if-then) inference tasks.
  • Participants were given categorical (certain) and probabilistic (uncertain) instructions.
  • Children's justifications for their inferences were analyzed.
  • A third study specifically tested for confusion between probability and confidence judgments.

Main Results:

  • Six-year-olds responded similarly to both categorical and probabilistic inferences.
  • Probabilistic conditional inferences showed minimal development, while categorical inferences improved significantly between ages 6 and 7.
  • Counterexample generation strongly correlated with categorical reasoning across all ages, and with probabilistic reasoning in younger children.
  • A clear distinction was found between probability and confidence judgments.

Conclusions:

  • Children demonstrate early competence in probabilistic conditional reasoning.
  • The ability to distinguish between categorical and probabilistic reasoning solidifies by age 9.
  • Findings align with dual-process theories but suggest refinements are needed for the analytic-heuristic distinction.