Towards a Comprehensive Test of Qualitative Reasoning Skill in Design

A battery of tests for assessing the cognitive skills needed for the conceptual design is being developed. Divergent thinking and visual thinking tests were fully developed and validated previously. This paper focuses on the development of a test on qualitative reasoning skill.Indicators of qualitative reasoning are identified and categorized as: deductive reasoning, inductive reasoning, analogical reasoning, abductive reasoning, and intuitive physics; the derivation of each is based on both cognitive science and empirical studies of design. The paper also considers the metrics for measuring skill levels in different individuals and candidate test items and grading rubric for each skill.Copyright © 2012 by ASME