Computerized dynamic testing of children's potential for reasoning by analogy: The role of executive functioning

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate children's potential for reasoning by analogy utilizing a newly‐developed computerized dynamic test, and the potential differential influence of executive functions (cognitive flexibility, attention, and planning) on static and dynamic measures of analogical reasoning. Participants included 64 children (mean age = 7.55). The study employed a two‐session experimental test‐training‐test design. Based on randomized blocking, half of the children received a graduated prompts training between pre‐test and post‐test, and the other half did not. Trained children improved more than control children in both their accuracy scores and number of accurately applied transformations from pre‐test to post‐test. It was further found that cognitive flexibility, attention and planning, is associated with successful solving of analogies. Training children in analogical reasoning seemed to reduce the effect of executive functions. It was also found that that children who were more cognitively flexible needed more prompts during the training.

Computerized Process-Oriented Dynamic Testing of Children’s Ability to Reason by Analogy Using Log Data

“…The current study utilized a computerized dynamic test of geometrical analogies (Vogelaar et al, 2021; see Figure 1 for a screenshot of the program). The constructed response items were presented as pictures and followed an A:B::C:?…”

“…Because of the high level of standardization, dynamic tests using graduated prompts training are well suited for computerization. In previous studies, computerized graduated prompts were found an effective approach which led to learning gains in a variety of tasks and domains (e.g., Poehner & Lantolf, 2013;Veerbeek et al, 2019;Vogelaar et al, 2021;Wu et al, 2017). In addition, computerized dynamic tests allow for analyzing process data, providing additional information on solving processes on inductive reasoning tasks (Veerbeek et al, 2019).…”