Young Children's Conditional Reasoning, Working Memory, and Inhibitory Control

Age Differences in the Relationship Among Conditional Inference, Working Memory and Prepotent Response Inhibition

“…Previous studies on preschoolers and older children (e.g. Barrouillet & Lecas, 1999;Handley et al, 2004;Nakamichi, 2007) revealed that better performance of the WM task correlated with better performance of the conditional inference task. Thus, a positive correlation between conditional inference and WM was predicted for all age groups.…”

“…It is difficult for preschoolers and elementary school children to infer from counterfactual propositions (e.g. Markovits, 1995;Markovits & Vachon, 1989;Nakamichi, 2007). This difficulty may depend on the immaturity of IC ability because several studies revealed that the achievement of counterfactual inference was related to IC (e.g.…”

“…This difficulty may depend on the immaturity of IC ability because several studies revealed that the achievement of counterfactual inference was related to IC (e.g. Handley et al, 2004;Nakamichi, 2007;Simoneau & Markovits, 2003). Considering that the difficulty with counterfactual inferences decreases according to age development, IC is an important factor in preschoolers' and elementary school children's conditional inference capability.…”

“…It was necessary to use tasks to measure young children's WM and IC because this study included preschoolers. Nakamichi (2007) had addressed issues concerning conditional inference, WM and IC in preschoolers. Nakamichi (2007) used the Backward Digit Span (BDS) task to measure preschoolers' WM.…”

“…Nakamichi (2007) had addressed issues concerning conditional inference, WM and IC in preschoolers. Nakamichi (2007) used the Backward Digit Span (BDS) task to measure preschoolers' WM. The BDS task could be used for both preschoolers and older children.…”