Predictors of Deductive Reasoning in Primary School Children

IntroductionThe relationship between reasoning as cognitive ability and the other cognitive skills is extensively discussed in the reference literature. Some authors, supporters of factorial theories, argue that reasoning must be approached in close connection with intelligence. Thus, Spearman identifies two factors: factor g (a general ability) and factors s (specific skills). Thurstone includes reasoning in the category of six primary factors: the numerical factor, the verbal factor, the spatial factor, memory, verbal fluency and reasoning. For Cattell, intelligence is not a unitary construct; there are two types of intelligence: fluid intelligence (Gf) and crystallized intelligence (Gc). Fluid intelligence is involved in solving problems using inductive and deductive reasoning, concept formation and classification, whereas crystallized intelligence is involved in acquired declarative knowledge. The human intellect is a universe of processes organized into systems that perform tasks within problem solving (Demetriou, Spanoudis, & Mouyi, 2011). The relationship between reasoning and memory should be discussed in terms of chronological age. In adults, working memory is linked to the successful activation of information - relevant framework when people reason with familiar causal conditionals. Thus, there is a certainty that cognitive skills do not have only a role in hypothetical, logical thinking, but they are necessary for reasoning in order to solve contextualized problems. During reasoning, memory structures that are associated with the content of the problem are automatically accessed and specific elements within the structure are activated. The less associated a given item is with the context of the task, the more we need greater effort and longer time in order to refresh it.As regards the relationship between reasoning and other cognitive skills in early childhood, we shall present in the following pages Salthouse's theory, similar with Fry and Hale's theory (1996, apud Nettelbeck & Burns, 2010) known as "developmental cascade", which involves a sequence of stages within which the processing efficiency of a certain stage has a particular effect on the next stage. The child's cognitive development is described in terms of causal relations between chronological age, processing speed, working memory and fluid intelligence. After the statistical control of age, individual differences in processing speed influence memory; when we control age and processing speed, working memory influences fluid intelligence.Many studies have investigated the relationship between working memory and deductive reasoning. Gilhooly et al. (1993, apud Morrison, 2005) asked participants to solve syllogisms at different levels of complexity. In the first experiment, participants viewed or heard the premises, as these were read. Oral presentation should determine a higher demand of working memory, because the content of the premise had been preserved before they solved the problem. They found more errors in verbal condition than in visual condition. The author concludes that reasoning is dependent on visual working memory.Many theories argue that a significant restriction regarding the ability of reasoning refers to the limits of mental resources, in particular working memory. There are studies that demonstrate the link between working memory and performance in the case of deductive reasoning. The theory of mental models allows a more profound explanation of this idea. Reasoning involves the construction and manipulation of mental models, which are a form of analogous representations. Although the exact nature of these models and their relationship with mental images is not clear, it is assumed that spatial ability should influence reasoning. Studies in developmental psychology argue that deductive reasoning with abstract premises is more difficult (Markovits & Vachon, 1990, apud Markovits, Doyon, & Simoneau, 2002) and requires complex cognitive processes. …