Research, Scientific reasoning
Find out about our new instrument to measure scientific reasoning in elementary school. The full instrument consists of 21 questions and it takes about 90 minutes to administer it. There…
Research, Scientific reasoning
Already 6-year-olds show basic abilities in scientific reasoning! Our recent study also reveals substantial individual differences in kindergarten: While some children are very skilful in scientific reasoning, others still find…
Research, Scientific reasoning
Which cognitive abilities are associated with scientific reasoning in elementary school? Our study with 402 second-, third-, and fourth-graders showed that scientific-reasoning skills are associated with inhibition, intelligence, language skills,…
Research, Scientific reasoning
Understanding the principles of experimentation is a crucial aspect of scientific reasoning. To measure children’s experimentation skills, we developed an instrument that assesses their understanding of experimental designs. Download a…
Osterhaus, C., Koerber, S., & Sodian, B. (2020). The Science-P Reasoning Inventory (SPR-I): Measuring emerging scientific-reasoning skills in primary school. International Journal of Science Education.doi:10.1080/09500693.2020.1748251 [Supplementary materials] Scientific reasoning is a crucial…
Osterhaus, C., Magee, J., Saffran, A., & Alibali, M. W. (2019). Supporting successful interpretations of covariation data: Beneficial effects of variable symmetry and problem context. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 72, 994–1004. doi:10.1177/1747021818775909…
Dealing with evidence, Research
In a recent study, we investigated people’s ability to interpret bar graphs. What we found: Even college students find it difficult. On average, they solved less than 50% of the…