The Development of Relational Reasoning in South Korean Elementary and Middle-School Students: A Cross-Sectional Investigation.

Soo Eun Chae,Patricia A Alexander

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.630609

Abstract

Relational reasoning is a higher-order executive function that involves the ability to perceive meaningful patterns within a body of seemingly unrelated information. In this study, the ability of 749 fourth (Mage = 10), sixth (Mage = 12), eighth (Mage = 14), and tenth graders (Mage = 16) to identify meaningful relational patterns was investigated. This general cognitive ability was assessed by means of the Test of Relational Reasoning-Junior (TORRjr), a 32-item measure organized into four 8-item scales that assess analogical, anomalous, antinomous, and antithetical reasoning. Students’ performance on the TORRjr was analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis, measurement invariance test, and non-parametric median-based analyses. The confirmatory factor analysis supported that the higher-order factor model was the best fit for the TORRjr data for the Korean students. The measurement was determined to be invariant by gender but variant across grade levels. The non-parametric analysis resulted in an asymptotic (a constant increasing up to grade 6 and then a level off witnessed from grades 8 to 10) development pattern in overall relational reasoning across the grades. In comparison to analogy and anomaly, antinomy and antithesis scores were more fully developed by grade 8 and that level of performance was maintained at grade 10. The TORRjr appeared to be a viable measure for the Korean samples up to approximately 15 years of age. The significance of these findings for research and instructional practice are discussed.

Highlights

Relational reasoning is a higher-order cognitive ability to perceive meaningful patterns within a body of seemingly unrelated information (Alexander and The Disciplined Reading and Learning Research Laboratory, 2012; Diamond, 2013; Dumas et al, 2013)
Given the weight of the contemporary and historical evidence documenting the significance of relational reasoning to cognitive performance, it is justified to investigate the initial manifestation of relational reasoning and how it develops over time
Except for grade 10, the students performed best on the analogy scale followed by antinomy, anomaly, and antithesis, respectively

Summary

Introduction

Relational reasoning is a higher-order cognitive ability to perceive meaningful patterns within a body of seemingly unrelated information (Alexander and The Disciplined Reading and Learning Research Laboratory, 2012; Diamond, 2013; Dumas et al, 2013). Recognition of its importance goes back decades to work by James (1890), Spearman (1927), Cattell (1949), and others In his Principles of Psychology, William James (1890) described the ability to discriminate differences and similarities as essential to human thinking and learning. For instance, there is evidence that even children as young as four can manifest relational reasoning when the conditions and contexts are facilitative (White and Alexander, 1986; Chiu and Alexander, 2014). In the aforementioned studies, only one form of relational reasoning was investigated, analogical reasoning, which pertains to the discernment of associations based on similarities

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