Abstract
Following Smedslund’s (1960) findings concerning the intransitivity of preschoolers’ inferences about the preferences of others, three age levels of public school children were tested on an inference-preference task, using colors as stimuli. The median ages of groups tested were 6;3, 9;2, 11;2. Appreciable transitivity of response appeared only in the eldest group. Verbal explanations for transitive responses were required for an additional group with a median age of 7;0. The data suggest that the nontransitive hypotheses described by Smedslund (1963) do contribute to the inferences of children, but indicate that egocentrism is not, as Smedslund (1960) contended, an adequate explanation for the intransitivity of children’s inferences about preferences.
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This research was partially supported by a grant from the Division of Mental Health of Department of Health of the Government of the Province of Alberta. The Es are grateful to the Edmonton, Alberta, public schools and to the personnel of the individual schools involved for their cooperation in providing Ss for this study.
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Bradbury, H., Nelson, T.M. The transitivity of children’s inferences about preferences. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 2, 49–51 (1973). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03327713
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03327713