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Counterfactual Syllogistic Reasoning in Normal 4-Year-Olds, Children with Learning Disabilities, and Children with Autism,☆☆

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Abstract

Instruction encouraging imagery improves logical reasoning with counterfactual premises by normal preschool children. In contrast, children with autism have been reported to reason accurately with counterfactual premises in the absence of such instruction (F. J. Scott, S. Baron-Cohen, & A. M. Leslie, 1999). To investigate this pattern of findings, we compared the performance of children with autism, children with learning disabilities, and normally developing 4-year-olds, who were given reasoning problems both with and without instruction in two separate testing sessions 2 to 3 weeks apart. Overall, instruction to use imagery led to persistent logical performance. However, children with autism displayed a distinctive pattern of responding, performing around chance levels, showing a simple response bias, and rarely justifying their responses by elaborating on the premises. We propose that instruction boosts logical performance by clarifying the experimenter's intention that a false proposition be accepted as a basis for reasoning and that children with autism have difficulty grasping this intention.

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    This research was supported by a postgraduate award from the Medical Research Council, UK, to H.J.L. and by a grant (R000 22 1174) from the Economic and Social Research Council, UK, to P.L.H. The work was submitted in partial fulfillment of a doctorate in Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, by H.J.L., and was also presented in a poster at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Washington, DC (April 1997). We thank the staff, parents, and children at The Chinnor Units, Iffley Mead School, and St. Nicholas First School for their interest and participation; Sarah-Anne Maxwell for her help and enthusiasm in testing eight of the children with autism; and Eric Amsel and three anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful and thorough comments.

    ☆☆

    Address correspondence and reprint requests to Hilary J. Leevers, Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience, Aidekman Research Center, Rutgers University, 197, University Avenue, Newark, NJ 07102. E-mail: [email protected].

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