Written Language Maturity and Formal Reasoning in Male and Female Adolescents

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to test the hypothesis that a significant relationship exists between the development of formal reasoning and written language maturity as measured by length of minimal terminable units or T-units. Fifty subjects (25 males, mean-age 14.67 years and 25 females, mean-age 14.50 years) enrolled in high school freshman English classes were administered a series of 15 reasoning tasks requiring various aspects of formal reasoning for solution plus a test of field dependence-independence. Subjects were also given an in-class assignment to write an essay of 500 words about an important object in their lives. Various aspects of formal reasoning were found to correlate significantly with mean T-unit length for the males (r = 0.28 N.S. to 0.58 p < 0.001). The cumulative reasoning score correlated at 0.59 p < 0.001 with mean T-unit length. These coefficients were not substantially altered when field dependence-independence was partialled out. Surprisingly, for the females, formal reasoning did not correlate significantly with mean T-unit length. Although the reason for the discrepancy between the results for males and females is not clear, it is suggested that the reasoning tasks may be biased against females, and therefore not adequately assess their level of intellectual development.