Use of reasoning to a contradiction in grades three to college

The primary purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that an important intellectual acquisition during adolescence is the ability to generate arguments that involve reasoning to contradiction. Students in grades 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, and college were individually administered a four‐card selection task that required them to, among other things, reason to a contradiction to falsify a hypothesis. Virtually none of the students spontaneously...