Children's Thinking - IELTS Reading Sample With Explanation

IELTS Reading section examines a candidate’s understanding ability of a wide range of passages and question types. This IELTS Reading sample - Children’s Thinking is an IELTS Academic topic. There are many IELTS reading questions available online in IELTS reading practice papers. This passage contains three question types:

1. Identifying Information
2. Fill in the blanks

Children's Thinking - IELTS Reading Sample

One of the most eminent of psychologists, Clark Hull, claimed that the essence of reasoning lies in the putting together of two 'behaviour segments' in some novel way, never actually performed before, so as to reach a goal.

Two followers of Clark Hull, Howard and Tracey Kendler, devised a test for children that was explicitly based on Clark Hull's principles. The children were given the task of learning to operate a machine so as to get a toy. In order to succeed they had to go through a two-stage sequence. The children were trained on each stage separately. The stages consisted merely of pressing the correct one of two buttons to get a marble; and of inserting the marble into a small hole to release the toy.

The Kendlers found that the children could learn the separate bits readily enough. Given the task of getting a marble by pressing the button they could get the marble; given the task of getting a toy when a marble was handed to them, they could use the marble. (All they had to do was put it in a hole.) But they did not for the most part 'integrate', to use the Kendlers' terminology. They did not press the button to get the marble and then proceed without further help to use the marble to get the toy. So the Kendlers concluded that they were incapable of deductive reasoning.

The mystery at first appears to deepen when we learn, from another psychologist, Michael Cole, and his colleagues, that adults in an African culture apparently cannot do the Kendlers' task either. But it lessens, on the other hand, when we learn that a task was devised which was strictly analogous to the Kendlers' one but much easier for the African males to handle.

Instead of the button-pressing machine, Cole used a locked box and two differently coloured match-boxes, one of which contained a key that would open the box. Notice that there are still two behaviour segments — 'open the right match-box to get the key' and 'use the key to open the box' - so the task seems formally to be the same. But psychologically it is quite different. Now the subject is dealing not with a strange machine but with familiar meaningful objects; and it is clear to him what he is meant to do. It then turns out that the difficulty of 'integration' is greatly reduced.

Recent work by Simon Hewson is of great interest here for it shows that, for young children, too, the difficulty lies not in the inferential processes which the task demands, but in certain perplexing features of the apparatus and the procedure. When these are changed in ways which do not at all affect the inferential nature of the problem, then five-year-old children solve the problem as well as college students did in the Kendlers' own experiments.

Hewson made two crucial changes. First, he replaced the button-pressing mechanism in the side panels by drawers in these panels which the child could open and shut. This took away the mystery from the first stage of training. Then he helped the child to understand that there was no 'magic' about the specific marble which, during the second stage of training, the experimenter handed to him so that he could pop it in the hole and get the reward.

A child understands nothing, after all, about how a marble put into a hole can open a little door. How is he to know that any other marble of similar size will do just as well? Yet he must assume that if he is to solve the problem. Hewson made the functional equivalence of different marbles clear by playing a 'swapping game' with the children. The two modifications together produced a jump in success rates from 30 per cent to 90 per cent for five-year-olds and from 35 per cent to 72.5 per cent for four-year-olds. For three-year- olds, for reasons that are still in need of clarification, no improvement—rather a slight drop in performance - resulted from the change.

We may conclude, then, that children experience very real difficulty when faced with the Kendler apparatus; but this difficulty cannot be taken as proof that they are incapable of deductive reasoning.

Question 1-8

Classify the following descriptions as a referring

Write the appropriate letters in boxes 1-8 on your answer sheet.

NB: You may use any answer more than once.

(Guide: Candidates need to answer questions 1 to 8 by referring the options given in the box)

1. ________is cited as famous in the field of psychology.

Answer: CH

Supporting Sentence: One of the most eminent of psychologists, Clark Hull, claimed that the essence of reasoning lies in the putting together of two 'behaviour segments' in some novel way, never actually performed before, so as to reach a goal.

Keywords: famous, psychology

Keyword Location: 1st Paragraph, 1st Line

Explanation: Clark Hull is one of the most renowned psychologists.

Also check:

2. ________demonstrated that the two-stage experiment involving button-pressing and inserting a marble into a hole poses problems for certain adults as well as children.

Answer: MC

Supporting Sentence: The mystery at first appears to deepen when we learn, from another psychologist, Michael Cole, and his colleagues, that adults in an African culture apparently cannot do the Kendlers' task either.

Keywords: two-stage experiment, button-pressing, problems, certain adults, children

Keyword Location: 4th Paragraph, 2nd Line

Explanation: During their experiment, Michael Cole and his colleagues concluded that both African adults and young children found it difficult to perform the two-step experiment of Kendler’s – button-pressing and inserting a marble into a hole.

3. ________devised an experiment that investigated deductive reasoning without the use of any marbles.

Answer: MC

Supporting Sentence: Instead of the button-pressing machine, Cole used a locked box and two differently coloured match-boxes, one of which contained a key that would open the box. Notice that there are still two behaviour segments — 'open the right match-box to get the key' and 'use the key to open the box' - so the task seems formally to be the same.

Keywords: experiment, deductive reasoning, without, marbles

Keyword Location: 5th Paragraph, 1st Line

Explanation: For their experiment on deductive reasoning, Michael Cole and his colleagues, instead of using the button pressing machine, used a locked box and two match boxes of different shades – one of them containing a key to open the box.

4. ________appears to have proved that a change in the apparatus dramatically improves the performance of children of certain ages.

Answer: SH

Supporting Sentence: Hewson made the functional equivalence of different marbles clear by playing a 'swapping game' with the children. The two modifications together produced a jump in success rates from 30 per cent to 90 per cent for five-year-olds and from 35 per cent to 72.5 per cent for four-year-olds. For three-year- olds, for reasons that are still in need of clarification, no improvement—rather a slight drop in performance - resulted from the change.

Keywords: change, apparatus, improves, performance, children

Keyword Location: 8th Paragraph, 5th Line

Explanation: The experiments conducted by Simon Hewson proved that a modification in the equipment used boosts the performance of children belonging to certain age groups.

5. ________used a machine to measure inductive reasoning that replaced button-pressing with drawer-opening.

Answer: SH

Supporting Sentence: First, he replaced the button-pressing mechanism in the side panels by drawers in these panels which the child could open and shut. This took away the mystery from the first stage of training.

Keywords: machine, inductive reasoning, replaced, button-pressing, drawer-opening

Keyword Location: 7th Paragraph, 2nd Line

Explanation: For his experiment to measure inductive reasoning, Simon Hewson used the task of drawer opening instead of button pressing.

6. ________experimented with things that the subjects might have been expected to encounter in everyday life, rather than with a machine.

Answer: MC

Supporting Sentence: But psychologically it is quite different. Now the subject is dealing not with a strange machine but with familiar meaningful objects; and it is clear to him what he is meant to do. It then turns out that the difficulty of 'integration' is greatly reduced.

Keywords: subjects, encounter, everyday life, machine

Keyword Location: 5th Paragraph, 4th Line

Explanation: During their experiment, Michael Cole and his colleagues, instead of using an alien machine, used objects that were familiar to the subjects.

7. ________compared the performance of five-year-olds with college students, using the same apparatus with both sets of subjects.

Answer: SH

Supporting Sentence: Recent work by Simon Hewson is of great interest here for it shows that, for young children, too, the difficulty lies not in the inferential processes which the task demands, but in certain perplexing features of the apparatus and the procedure.

Keywords: performance, five-year olds, college students, apparatus

Keyword Location: 6th Paragraph, 2nd Line

Explanation: During his experiments on inductive reasoning, Simon Hewson tried to make a comparison between the performance of five-year olds and college students by using the same equipment.

8. ________is cited as having demonstrated that earlier experiments into children's ability to reason deductively may have led to the wrong conclusions.

Answer: SH

Supporting Sentence: A child understands nothing, after all, about how a marble put into a hole can open a little door. How is he to know that any other marble of similar size will do just as well? Yet he must assume that if he is to solve the problem.

Keywords: experiments, children’s ability, reason deductively, wrong conclusions

Keyword Location: 9th Paragraph, 1st Line

Explanation: According to Simon Hewson, Kendler’s experiment proved to be very difficult for the children. However, this cannot be used to conclude that children cannot think deductively.

Questions 9-13

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage?

In boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet write

YES if the statement agrees with the information
NO if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this in the passage

(Guide: Candidates need to answer questions 9 to 13 by either agreeing with the fact, or disagreeing, or stating that it is not given)

9. Howard and Tracey Kendler studied under Clark Hull

Answer: Not Given

Explanation: Although the first and second paragraphs of the passage talk about Howard and Tracy Kendler being the followers of Clark Hull, yet, it is not clearly mentioned anywhere in the passage that they were students of Clark Hull.

10. The Kendler’s trained their subjects separately in the two stages of their experiment, but not in how to integrate the two actions.

Answer: Yes

Supporting Sentence: Given the task of getting a marble by pressing the button they could get the marble; given the task of getting a toy when a marble was handed to them, they could use the marble. (All they had to do was put it in a hole.) But they did not for the most part 'integrate', to use the Kendlers' terminology.

Keywords: Kendler, trained, subjects, two stages, experiment, integrate

Keyword Location: 3rd Paragraph, 2nd Line.

Explanation: During their experiment upon children , the Kendler’s concluded that they were incapable of deductive reasoning. This was because the subjects, who were trained in two stages for the experiment, could successfully perform the stages separately but had completely failed to integrate them. Hence, the answer is correct.

11. Michael Cole and his colleagues demonstrated that adult performance on inductive reasoning tasks depends on features of the apparatus and procedure.

Answer: Yes

Supporting Sentence: The mystery at first appears to deepen when we learn, from another psychologist, Michael Cole, and his colleagues, that adults in an African culture apparently cannot do the Kendlers' task either. But it lessens, on the other hand, when we learn that a task was devised which was strictly analogous to the Kendlers' one but much easier for the African males to handle.

Keywords: Michael Cole, adult performance, inductive reasoning, apparatus, procedure

Keyword Location: 4th Paragraph

Explanation: During their experiment upon African adults, Michael Cole and his colleagues concluded that the difficulty of inductive reasoning in the case of adults was greatly reduced when they were provided with familiar objects and tasks. Therefore, the answer is correct.

12. All Hewson's experiments used marbles of the same size.

Answer: Yes

Supporting Sentence: How is he to know that any other marble of similar size will do just as well? Yet he must assume that if he is to solve the problem. Hewson made the functional equivalence of different marbles clear by playing a 'swapping game' with the children.

Keywords: Hewson, experiment, marbles, same size

Keyword Location: 8th Paragraph, 2nd and 3rd Line

Explanation: According to Hewson, the children were not capable of solving or understanding complex tasks. Hence, during his experiments, he concluded that upon explaining to the children that all the marbles were of the same size, the success rate of the children belonging to certain age groups rose drastically. Hence, the answer is in the affirmative.

13. Hewson's modifications resulted in a higher success rate for children of all ages.

Answer: No

Supporting Sentence: The two modifications together produced a jump in success rates from 30 per cent to 90 per cent for five-year-olds and from 35 per cent to 72.5 per cent for four-year-olds.

Keywords: Hewson, modification, higher success rate, children

Keyword Location: 8th Paragraph, 5th Line

Explanation: Hewson’s experiment did not show a high success rate in children of all ages. In five-year-olds, the success rate increased from 30 percent to 90 percent whereas, in children aged four years, the success rate drastically increased from 35 percent to 72.5 percent. However, in the case of children aged three years, a slight drop in their performance was observed. Hence, the answer is not correct.