The current study aimed to investigate the relation between conditional reasoning, which is a common type of logical reasoning, and children's mathematical problem solving. A sample of 124 fourth graders was tested for their conditional reasoning skills and their mathematical problem solving skills, as well as a list of control variables (e.g.,…

Solving new problems can be made easier if one can build on experiences with other problems one has already successfully solved. The ability to exploit earlier problem-solving experiences in solving new problems seems to require several cognitive sub-abilities. Minimally, one needs to be able to retrieve relevant knowledge of earlier solved…

Two experiments studied preschool children's ability to infer numerosity from correspondence between two sets. Found that children were able to make inferences as early as three years of age. However, differences between the two conditions suggest production deficiencies in young children's use of counting as a problem-solving strategy when they…

There is no common agreement on the meaning of the word "understand". However, there is agreement on what students should be able to do with material they understand. Bloom et al. discuss kinds of tasks a student should be able to do, provided that the student understands. In a similar way, Biggs and Collis provide a taxonomy intended to evaluate…

Two task were developed to assess second and fourth grade girls' ability to generate quantitative inferences and estimate answers to math word problems. The generation of quantitative inferences is thought to constitute problem representation, and the ability to estimate answers to word problems is facilitated by the presence of an accurate…