The examination committee consisted of Prof. Dr. Ghada Ali Hadi as Chair, Prof. Dr. Intisar Hashim Mahdi as member and supervisor, Asst. Prof. Dr. Manaf Fathi Abdulrazzaq as member, and Ms. Alaa Jamil Saleh as an external member from the College of Education for Women, University of Kufa.
The study aimed to highlight the difficulties children face in effectively employing their causal reasoning abilities. Children may rely on inferences closely linking cause and effect without verifying the existence of a genuine causal relationship. In some cases, outcomes may be attributed to chance, good or bad luck, due to weaknesses in causal reasoning. For example, a student’s academic failure might be interpreted as a consequence of negligence, lack of reading, or weak follow-up rather than actual causal factors.
The research concluded with several key findings, emphasizing the importance of using visual-spatial performance tests, such as block design tasks, to assess early cognitive abilities, particularly during the transition from kindergarten to primary education. These methods are effective in detecting individual differences even at young ages. The study also highlighted the necessity of considering developmental differences among various abilities when designing intelligence and thinking curricula, recommending that activities progress from concrete sensory tasks to abstract verbal tasks, acknowledging that different abilities do not develop at the same rate or time.
