The Influence of Task Dynamics on Inductive Generalizations: How Sequential and Simultaneous Presentation of Evidence Impacts the Strength and Scope of Property Projections

Abstract

ABSTRACTYoung children are remarkably flexible reasoners insofar as they modify their inferences to accommodate the conceptual information or perceptual relations represented in an inductive problem. Children’s inductive reasoning is highly sensitive to what evidence is presented to them. Four experiments with 115 preschoolers (Mage = 4;8) and 119 adults (Mage = 21;9) examined whether induction is influenced by how evidence is presented. Specifically, these studies explored the extent to which presenting evidence exemplars at the same time (i.e., simultaneous presentation) or one by one (i.e., sequential presentation) would influence property projections to a range of targets. Experiment 1 revealed that simultaneous presentation yielded a higher rate and a broader scope of projections than did sequential presentation. Experiment 2 confirmed that these effects were not due to how items were labeled. Experiments 3 and 4 explored the interplay between evidence presentation and specific task features that impact how participants compare evidence and target exemplars. In Experiment 3, there were no differences between the 2 presentation formats when evidence exemplars were removed prior to the projection phase, thereby eliminating the opportunity to compare evidence exemplars and targets. Finally, Experiment 4 showed that sequential presentation yielded a high rate of projections when participants were not afforded the opportunity to compare exemplars within the evidence sample. These results have implications for understanding the mechanisms that guide children’s inductive decisions.