Do different types of reasoning predict school grades?
Verbal deductive reasoning is a stronger predictor of overall high school grades than visual fluid intelligence.
Source
A New Look to a Classic Issue: Reasoning and Academic Achievement at Secondary School
What they did
Researchers evaluated 51 science students, specifically 19 girls and 32 boys aged between 15.3 and 17.7 years. They administered several reasoning assessments: the Cognitive Reflection Test, a Deductive Reasoning Test, and Raven's Progressive Matrices Test. They then retrieved the participants' school grades across seven basic subjects to compute separate mathematics and non-mathematics achievement averages.
What they found
Together, the reasoning and intelligence assessments accounted for 33% of the variance in math grades, whereas deductive reasoning alone was the main predictor of 28% of the variance in non-math grades. On the Cognitive Reflection Test, students struggled heavily, producing 58% incorrect intuitive answers and only 33% correct ones. Additionally, those who gave intuitive errors greatly underestimated the test's difficulty, predicting that 76% of their peers would solve the problems correctly.
The limits
What it doesn't show
Because this study is correlational, it cannot establish a causal link between reasoning performance and school grades. The tiny sample size of only 51 science students from a single public high school restricts the generalizability of these findings to other educational settings or student majors. Finally, because the academic scores were based on school-issued grades rather than standardized tests, they are vulnerable to subjective evaluation biases from individual instructors.
Key terms
- Fluid Intelligence
- The capacity to think logically, analyze novel problems, and identify patterns independent of acquired knowledge.
- Deductive Reasoning
- A logical process where a conclusion is drawn from the combination of multiple premises assumed to be true.
- Cognitive Reflection
- The ability or disposition to override an immediate, intuitive gut response in order to engage in further analytical reasoning.
- System 1 and System 2
- A dual-process framework distinguishing between fast, automatic, unconscious thinking (System 1) and slow, controlled, analytical thinking (System 2).
- Working Memory
- A cognitive system with a limited capacity that is responsible for temporarily holding and manipulating information.
- Metadeduction
- The metacognitive ability to reflect on one's own logical reasoning processes and distinguish valid arguments from factual reality.
Flashcards
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Quiz yourself
According to dual-process theories, what are the primary characteristics of System 1 thinking?
Common questions
Why did the researchers only test science students?
Science subjects are highly structured and hierarchical, making academic success in these areas more heavily dependent on abstract reasoning abilities compared to humanities.
What is the Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT) and why is it tricky?
The CRT presents word problems that trigger an immediate, incorrect intuitive answer. To get it right, a person must actively suppress this automatic response and perform basic math.
How does working memory link to deductive reasoning?
Deductive reasoning requires people to build mental models of premises. Because holding multiple complex scenarios in mind takes significant mental effort, individuals with stronger working memory capacities tend to be better reasoners.
Did gender play a role in the findings?
The researchers did not find any significant gender differences in deductive reasoning performance or academic grades, so gender was not factored into the final regression models.
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