Both studies also examined the relationships between schema acquisition and inferential thinking. Children were divided into three groups according to what kind of source material they're learned. Children in each group were first presented with a source material and then they were requested to solve target problems consisting of two mathematical word problems. As Table 1 shows, for the MR group, the source included two Mathematical word problems, solution Reminding and line graphs of solutions. For the SR group, the source included two Science problems, solution Reminding and line graphs of solutions.
Children can apply the basic ratio knowledge learned from source to solve target problems.
Meanwhile, after learning the source problems subjects were requested to identify the fields of source problems that they have learned before and then induce schema from source materials. The inferential thinking question is a multiple-choice test. Subjects have to generalize a correct statement that was induced from target problems solving. In the NR group, a story of magic leaves was given as a source material. Subjects were divided into four groups according to what kind of source materials they learned.