Developmental change on a five-term transitive inference

Abstract

Three experiments are reported which utilize the five-term transitive inference task developed by P. E. Bryant and T. Trabasso ( Nature (London) 1971, 232, 456–458). In Experiment I, preschool children (mean age = 4 years 8 months) required fewer trials to learn the premises and showed a higher proportion of correct responses on the inferences when the presentation order was serial (i.e., AB, BC, CD, DE) throughout training as compared to when a nonserial presentation order (i.e., BC, DE, AB, CD) was used. In Experiments II and III, preschool (mean age = 4 years 7 months), second grade (mean age = 7 years 8 months), fourth grade (mean age = 9 years 9 months), and college students (mean age = 18 years 11 months) were administered the nonserial presentation version of the five-term transitive inference. An ontogenetic decrease in trials to learn the premises and corresponding increase in proportion correct on both premises and inferences was observed. A developmental model specifying changes at two stages of constructing an internal linear order is proposed to explain the results.