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Examining Recall Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood Using the Elicited Imitation Paradigm
Published on: April 28, 2016
Belief inhibition in children's reasoning: memory-based evidence
1Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium. sara.steegen@ppw.kuleuven.be
Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
|March 10, 2012
Summary
Adolescents use inhibitory control to override intuitive beliefs when solving logic problems. Successful reasoning leads to reduced memory access for conflicting intuitive thoughts, demonstrating cognitive control development.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Adult reasoning relies on inhibiting intuitive beliefs conflicting with logic.
- Understanding this inhibitory process in adolescents is crucial for cognitive development research.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate belief inhibition during reasoning in adolescents (12-17 years old).
- To adapt a memory field procedure for studying cognitive inhibition in younger reasoners.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a lexical decision task to assess memory accessibility of beliefs.
- Beliefs were cued during syllogistic reasoning problems.
- Examined memory access for words linked to misleading beliefs after correct/incorrect syllogism solutions.
Main Results:
- Impaired memory access for words related to misleading beliefs was observed.
- This impairment occurred when adolescents solved syllogisms correctly.
- Suggests inhibitory processing is engaged when logic conflicts with intuition.
Conclusions:
- Correct reasoning in adolescents involves inhibiting conflicting intuitive beliefs.
- Findings support the role of inhibitory control in developing logical reasoning skills.
- The study demonstrates the applicability of memory-based tasks to assess cognitive inhibition in youth.
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