Inhibitory control and counterintuitive science and maths reasoning in adolescence

Annie Brookman-Byrne; Denis Mareschal; Andrew K Tolmie; Iroise Dumontheil

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0198973

Inhibitory control and counterintuitive science and maths reasoning in adolescence

PLoS One. 2018 Jun 21;13(6):e0198973. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0198973. eCollection 2018.

Authors

Annie Brookman-Byrne^{1

2}, Denis Mareschal^{1

2}, Andrew K Tolmie^{2

3}, Iroise Dumontheil^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London, London, United Kingdom.
² Centre for Educational Neuroscience, University of London, London, United Kingdom.
³ Department of Psychology and Human Development, UCL Institute of Education, University College London, London, United Kingdom.

Abstract

Existing concepts can be a major barrier to learning new counterintuitive concepts that contradict pre-existing experience-based beliefs or misleading perceptual cues. When reasoning about counterintuitive concepts, inhibitory control is thought to enable the suppression of incorrect concepts. This study investigated the association between inhibitory control and counterintuitive science and maths reasoning in adolescents (N = 90, 11-15 years). Both response and semantic inhibition were associated with counterintuitive science and maths reasoning, when controlling for age, general cognitive ability, and performance in control science and maths trials. Better response inhibition was associated with longer reaction times in counterintuitive trials, while better semantic inhibition was associated with higher accuracy in counterintuitive trials. This novel finding suggests that different aspects of inhibitory control may offer unique contributions to counterintuitive reasoning during adolescence and provides further support for the hypothesis that inhibitory control plays a role in science and maths reasoning.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Child
Concept Formation / physiology*
Female
Humans
Inhibition, Psychological*
Male
Mathematics
Neuropsychological Tests
Problem Solving / physiology*
Science

Grants and funding

ABB received funding from the ESRC (http://www.esrc.ac.uk/), grant number ES/J500021/1. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.