Abstract
The concept of pragmatic reasoning Schemas has been advanced to explain the variation in adults' performance on the Wason selection task. From a Piagetian point of view the ability to test a proposition by seeking falsifying counter-examples demands formal reasoning. However, the pragmatic Schemas suggested as underlying adults' performance on contextualized versions of the selection task would be expected to be available to young children. This paper reports a study with 88 6- to 8-year-old children using a form of the Reduced Array Selection Task (RAST). Where the task was contextualized as an intelligible permission/prohibition rule, RAST performance was significantly better than in a control condition lacking such contextualization. Performance reached nearly eighty percent success amongst the 7- and 8-year-olds. Children who spontaneously recast the rule in negative form were particularly successful. Significant transfer of success to a standard RAST posttest was demonstrated. Developmental implications of the concept of pragmatic Schemas are briefly discussed.
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