Title: A logical model for Deductive Mastermind. Empirical test in a massively used online learning system.
Speaker: Nina Gierasimczuk, ILLC, Amsterdam.
Time: 4 March 13.00-14.15.
Place: Room 040, building 324, Technical University of Denmark.
Abstract: I will discuss the psychological relevance of a logical model for deductive reasoning. The talk will focus on a new way to analyze logical reasoning in a deductive version of the Mastermind game implemented within a popular Dutch online educational learning system (Math Garden). The model, based on he analytic tableaux method known from proof theory, allows predictions about the difficulty of Deductive Mastermind tasks (a proxy for working memory load). The empirical hypotheses were tested against a large group of students (over 37 thousand children, 5–12 years of age), which gave empirical difficulty ratings of all 321 game-items. The results show that our logical approach predicts these item ratings well, which supports the psychological relevance of the model. A significant part of this talk will be devoted to the architecture and significance of the Math Garden educational learning system.
The talk is based on joint work: Nina Gierasimczuk, Han van der Maas, and Maartje Raijmakers, An analytic tableaux model for Deductive Mastermind empirically tested with a massively used online learning system, Journal of Logic, Language and Information 2013, pdf.