Abstract
Recursion is one of the remarkable structures of our logical thinking.
This study aimed at testing the hypothesis that the recursive information processing capacity is one of the factors which are critical to the performance of the reasoning with recursive structure.
It is well-known that the self-embedded sentences are more difficult to recall than the branching sentences. And for children, it is often difficult to describe the verbal description of recursive thinking. The degree of recursiveness decides on the difficulty.
Two experiments were carried out to test the hypothesis. The subjects were first graders at junior high schools. In both of the two experiments, two logical paradoxes with recursive structures were used as reasoning tasks. Two measures of the recursive information processing capacity were used; Ist experiment: the performances of the recalling tasks with self-embedded and branching sentences; and 2nd experiment: the scores of the verbal descriptions of the pictures which show recursive thinking.
In the Ist experiment, high positive correlation was observed between the understanding of the paradoxes and the performances of the recalling tasks with self-embedded sentences.
In the 2nd experiment, those who understood the paradoxes marked higher points in the verbal descriptions of recursive thinking than those who did not understand them.
The recursive information processing capacity might be one of the critical factors of the performance of the reasoning having a recursive structure.
