본 연구에서는 유아의 논리적 사고교육의 기초를 마련하기 위하여 유아의 이행추론의 성격을 파악하고자 하였다. 유아의 이행추론과 오류에 미치는 과제유형과 전제제시순서의 효과가 어떠한 지를 알아보기 위하여, 6세 유아 76명의 이행추론 정답수행 정도와 오답수행에 나타난 오류를 분석하였다. 연구 결과, 첫째, 과제유형에 따라 유아의 이행추론에 차이가 있으나, 전제제시순서별 과제유형의 효과가 다른 것으로 나타났다. 둘째, 전제제시순서에 따라 유아의 이행추론에 차이가 있으나, 과제유형별 전제제시순서의 효과가 다른 것으로 나타났다. 셋째, 이행추론 과제에 대한 오답수행에 나타난 오류를 분석한 결과, 과제 자료에 내포된 서열적 특성에 기인한 오류, 과제자료 구성에 기인한 오류, 과제자료의 표면적 특성에 기인한 오류, 문제 이해 부족에 기인한 오류 등을 나타내었다. 넷째, 과제유형에 따라 이행추론과정에 나타난 오류 유형에 차이가 있으나, 전제제시순서별 과제유형의 효과가 다른 것으로 나타났다.
The purpose of this study was to understand the characteristics of young children's transitive inference in order to provide basis for young children's logical thinking education. In this study, 76 six-year-old children were asked to answer four transitive inference tasks[two types of task(the ABC task & the Color task) × two presentation orders of premises(X>Y, Y>Z & Y>Z, X>Y)] and to give the verbal report for the solving processes. The degree of correct transitive inference performance and the errors in the wrong transitive inference performance were analyzed. The results of this study were as follows: First, there were the effects of the task types on the degree of correct transitive inference performance. Specifically, in the presentation order of premises 1(X>Y, Y>Z), the degree of correct transitive inference performance of the ABC task was higher than that of the Color task. But in the presentation order of premises 2(Y>Z, X>Y), there was no difference between the ABC task and the Color task. Second, there were the effects of the presentation orders of premises on the degree of correct transitive inference performance. Specifically, in the ABC task, the degree of correct transitive inference performance of the presentation order of premises 1(X>Y, Y>Z) was higher than that of the presentation order of premises 2(Y>Z, X>Y). But in the Color task, there was no difference between the presentation order of premises 1 (X>Y, Y>Z) and the presentation order of premises 2(Y>Z, X>Y). Third, the errors in the wrong transitive inference performance were analyzed as 4 types: the error coming from the order connotation of the task items, the error coming from task construction, the error coming from the superficial characteristics of task items, and the error coming from the shortage of task comprehension. Fourth, there were the effects of the task types on the error types in the wrong transitive inference performance. Specifically, in the presentation order of premises 1(X>Y, Y>Z), there was no difference between the ABC task and the Color task. But in the presentation order of premises 2(Y>Z, X>Y), the error types in the wrong transitive inference performance of the ABC task was different from that of the Color task. In the ABC task, the errors coming from the order connotation of the task items and the errors coming from task construction were the most often appeared. But in the Color task, the errors coming from task construction and the errors coming from the superficial characteristics of task items were the most often appeared. It seems that these results could suggest reference to development of programs for logical thinking education and teaching methods.