Biomedical subjects

P A Klaczynski

Publications and source records attributed to P A Klaczynski.

12 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2000

Personal theories, intellectual ability, and epistemological beliefs: adult age differences in everyday reasoning biases.

Age-related differences in everyday reasoning biases were explored. In each of 2 social domains, examination of theoretical beliefs and biases along 2 dimensions of scientific reasoning, involving the law of large numbers and the evaluation of experimental evidence, revealed that, across age groups, scientific reasoning was used to reject evidence that contradicted prior beliefs; relatively cursory reasoning was used to accept belief-consistent evidence. Biased reasoning was more common among middle-aged and older adults than among young adults. Dispositions to engage in analytic processing were negatively related to biases, but intellectual abilities and bias were not related. The findings support a 2-process view of adult cognitive development and suggest that the tendency to rely on heuristic information processing increases with age.

Adult↗

PubMed1998

Representations as mediators of adolescent deductive reasoning.

In Experiment 1, preadolescents, middle adolescents, and late adolescents were presented 3 deductive reasoning tasks. With some important exceptions, conditional reasoning improved with age on problems containing permission conditional relations, and reasoning fallacies increased with age on problems containing causal conditional relations. The results of Experiments 2a and 2b indicated that problem type (i.e., permission or causal) does not mediate the activation of conditional reasoning skills. Rather, valid conditional inferences are more common on problems for which plausible alternative antecedents can be generated than on problems for which alternative antecedent generation is difficult. Conditional rules for which alternative antecedent generation is difficult may be misrepresented as biconditionals, resulting in biconditional rather than conditional reasoning.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1998

Development of scientific reasoning biases: cognitive versus ego-protective explanations.

Two conflicting perspectives have dominated the literature on self-serving reasoning biases. One maintains that individuals have difficulty objectively processing information relevant to their personal theories because they are reluctant to relinquish their cause-effect beliefs relevant to that domain. The ego-protective view claims that such biases arise because they enhance or protect individuals' self-views. These opposing positions were studied with 5th, 8th, and 11th graders. Scientific reasoning improved with age. Analyses of biases, indicated by ratings of evidence quality and written justifications, yielded mixed results regarding developmental trends in reasoning biases. Both theoretical beliefs and ego-protective motivations predicted reasoning biases. An accuracy motivation led to more complex justifications but failed to reduce reasoning biases. Adolescents appear to selectively apply their scientific reasoning skills.

Age Factors↗

PubMed1997

A change in viewpoint promotes use of height-in-picture as a depth cue in 5- to 7-year-olds' drawings of a simple depth relationship.

Height-in-picture emerges between 6 and 7 years of age in children's drawings as the first indication of portrayal of depth relationships, but can be promoted earlier by the use of a number of experimental manipulations. The present studies investigate whether changing, and hence drawing attention to, the child's viewpoint promotes use of height-in-picture. In the first study, 5/6- and 6/7-year-old children were asked to draw two blocks, arranged in depth. Following this, the child-array relationship was altered, either by moving the child through 90 degrees or by rotating the array through 90 degrees. Children then drew again what was now a left-right arrangement, whereupon the transformation was reversed and they made a final drawing. Only when children moved to a new standpoint was there a significant increase in vertical portrayal between first and third drawings. It was not simply the movement of the child that prompted use of height-in-picture because there was no such effect in conditions in which the child was moved but made an unrelated drawing from the new position. These results indicate that making viewpoint salient by asking for a drawing from a new position prompts young children to portray a simple depth relationship.

Age Factors↗

PubMed1997

The roles of personal investment and reasoning competence in career-relevant everyday problem solving.

To examine developmental differences in practical problem-solving, 51 late adolescents and 52 young adults were presented measures of everyday problem-solving that were either self-relevant or self-neutral. Results indicated: (a) a developmental shift in everyday problem-solving strategies, such that adolescents rated higher than adults those strategies that involved reconsideration of the problem situations and adapting to the conditions of the problems. By contrast, young adults rated higher more goal-defensive strategies than adolescents; (b) reasoning competence was more strongly related to ratings of self-relevant problems than to ratings of self-neutral problems, but only for the adolescents, providing some support for a relation between reasoning competence and everyday problem-solving; and (c) relevance effects on strategy ratings were clearly evidenced as both age groups rated planning for the future and shaping the present environment to correspond to their current goals higher for self-relevant than for neutral problems. These findings are discussed in terms of the possible roles of domain specifically, personal investment, age, and reasoning competence in adolescent and adult everyday problem-solving.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1997

Bias in adolescents' everyday reasoning and its relationship with intellectual ability, personal theories, and self-serving motivation.

The author presented 60 9th- and 12th-graders with hypothetical arguments that contained logical fallacies. Arguments were either consistent or inconsistent with participants' theories. Participants rated the quality and truth of each argument, identified perceived strengths and weaknesses in the arguments, and verbally described hypothetical experiments that could lead to evidence falsifying the claims made in the arguments. Results indicated that intellectual ability, particularly verbal ability, was the best predictor of each index of everyday reasoning. However, neither the ability measures nor age were related to biases in everyday reasoning. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that, for each reasoning variable, adolescents' personal theories accounted for the most variance in reasoning biases. These findings are discussed in terms of the roles that intellectual ability and theory-driven motivation play in everyday reasoning and self-serving adolescent reasoning.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1996

Everyday statistical reasoning during adolescence and young adulthood: motivational, general ability, and developmental influences.

Research on adolescent problem solving was extended into the domain of statistical reasoning and potential biases in reasoning. In Experiment 1, adolescents solved everyday reasoning problems dealing with the "law of large numbers" and the "intuitive analysis of covariance." In each problem, evidence was presented that portrayed each participant's dominant career goal favorably or unfavorably. In Experiment 2, adolescents and young adults were presented "law of large numbers" evidence that was goal-threatening, goal-enhancing, or goal-neutral. In both experiments, statistical reasoning could be used to discredit the evidence. Results indicated that (1) adolescents and young adults found goal-enhancing evidence more convincing than goal-neutral evidence which, in turn, was perceived more favorably than goal-threatening evidence; (2) statistical reasoning was more frequent on goal-threatening problems than on goal-neutral and goal-enhancing problems; (3) intellectual ability was unrelated to the biases in adolescents' reasoning; (4) verbal ability was linked to "law of large numbers" reasoning, but no cognitive ability was systematically correlated with "analysis of covariance" reasoning; and (5) law of large numbers reasoning of young adults was superior to that of adolescents, but young adults were no less biased in their reasoning than adolescents. The potential functions and consequences of adolescents' biased reasoning, the relation of everyday reasoning to general intellectual abilities, and the influences of motivation and depth of processing are discussed.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1990

Cultural-developmental tasks and adolescent development: theoretical and methodological considerations.

The focus of this paper is to clarify the oft-used concept of developmental tasks and place it within a cultural context. The role of "cultural-developmental" tasks in the development and modification of the adolescent's social-cognitive functioning is discussed, as are the respective roles of both individual and contextual-environmental factors in the production of these competencies. A theory which includes the individual's activity as an essential mediator between the individual and the context is outlined. Preliminary research supporting this view is then presented. Finally, some possibilities for assessing cultural-developmental tasks (from the adolescent's point of view) are discussed.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1989

Responding to anger in aggressive and nonaggressive boys: a research note.

Responding to adults' behavior was examined in 40 first- through third-grade boys. Boys were divided into aggressive, nonaggressive and control groups. In the experimental conditions, boys were exposed to laboratory simulations of prosocial and angry interactions between adults. Following each simulation, boys were interviewed. Aggressive boys reported greater aggressiveness towards a hypothetical peer following exposure to anger and, across several indices, reported being more highly aroused. Based on reports of arousal, a high responding category of reacting to anger was created. High responders were more likely than other boys to have been from the aggressive group and reported more aggression towards a hypothetical peer.

Aggression↗

PubMed1989

Transfer of conditional reasoning: effects of explanations and initial problem types.

Transfer of reasoning on Wason's (1966) selection task was explored in three experiments. Experiment 1 tested the effects of problem explanations and verbalization instructions on transfer from abstract or thematic problems to abstract problems. Explanations facilitated transfer only when the initial problems were abstract; verbalization did not produce transfer between problems. Experiment 2 explored the effects of problem similarity and explanations on transfer between problems. Although transfer occurred following explanations, no effect of similarity was found for thematic problems. In both of these experiments, the thematic effect (Wason & Shapiro, 1971) was observed. Experiment 3 examined the effects of explanations to abstract or thematic problems on transfer to subsequent abstract or thematic problems. Transfer of reasoning occurred from both initial problem types, particularly to problems of the same type; however, transfer occurred to a greater extent from abstract problems than from thematic problems. The results are discussed in terms of problem similarity and Cheng and Holyoak's (1985) pragmatic reasoning schema hypothesis.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Motivated scientific reasoning biases, epistemological beliefs, and theory polarization: a two-process approach to adolescent cognition.

Theory-motivated reasoning biases arise when different reasoning skills are invoked to evaluate evidence that is congruent or incongruent with individuals' belief systems. To explore this phenomenon, 66 early and 73 middle adolescents evaluated evidence relevant to their theories of social class or religion. In both conditions, reasoning biases were found, but in-group biases were evident only in the religion condition. In both conditions, higher order scientific reasoning was used to reject theory-incongruent evidence and judgmental heuristics (i.e., cognitive rules of thumb) were used to evaluate theory-congruent evidence. In both conditions, subsequent to the evidence presentation, adolescents' theories became more extreme (i.e., polarized) than at the outset of the experiment. Beliefs regarding the origin, acquisition, and certainty of knowledge, however, appeared to moderate reasoning biases and theory polarization. Age differences emerged on only one index of bias: In the religion condition, middle adolescents were more likely to treat theory-incongruent evidence as implausible. These findings are pertinent to theories of cognitive development, decision making, rationality, and in-group favoritism.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Analytic and heuristic processing influences on adolescent reasoning and decision-making.

The normative/descriptive gap is the discrepancy between actual reasoning and traditional standards for reasoning. The relationship between age and the normative/descriptive gap was examined by presenting adolescents with a battery of reasoning and decision-making tasks. Middle adolescents (N = 76) performed closer to normative ideals than early adolescents (N = 66), although the normative/descriptive gap was large for both groups. Correlational analyses revealed that (1) normative responses correlated positively with each other, (2) nonnormative responses were positively interrelated, and (3) normative and nonnormative responses were largely independent. Factor analyses suggested that performance was based on two processing systems. The "analytic" system operates on "decontextualized" task representations and underlies conscious, computational reasoning. The "heuristic" system operates on "contextualized," content-laden representations and produces "cognitively cheap" responses that sometimes conflict with traditional norms. Analytic processing was more clearly linked to age and to intelligence than heuristic processing. Implications for cognitive development, the competence/performance issue, and rationality are discussed.

Adolescent↗