Brief Reports: Interaction between Structure of Intellect Factors and Two Methods of Presenting Concepts of Logic

Abstract

The study reported is directly related to the work of Eastman (1975), which was a continuation of work begun by Carry (1968) and Webb (1971). Eastman obtained a significant interaction when the criterion measure of transfer was regressed on factors of general reasoning and spatial visualization. The Necessary Arithmetic Operations test and the Abstract Reasoning test of the Differential Aptitude Test Battery were used to measure these aptit udes, respectively. Two treatments, one graphical and the other analytical, were used to present methods for finding solution sets of quadratic inequalities. In the graphical treatment, concepts were presented in a symbolic-deductive mode. Eastman observed that factor analytic studies indicated that the measure for spatial visualization used by Carry and Webb (paper folding) had factor loadings on deduction. Conjecturing that the problem of deductive versus inductive presentation of the learning material might have been a confounding variable in the studies by Carry and by Webb, Eastman selected a different measure for spatial visualization, revised the instructional treatments to reflect a figural-inductive mode and a symbolic-deductive mode of presentation, and was successful in isolating an interaction.