Logical and Psychological Analysis of Deductive Mastermind
Nina Gierasimczuk, Han L. J. van der Maas, Maartje A. J. Raaijmakers · 2012
Abstract. The paper proposes a way to analyze logical reasoning in a deductive version of the Mastermind game implemented within the Math Garden educational system. Our main goal is to derive predictions about the cognitive difficulty of game-plays, e.g., the number of steps needed for solving the logical tasks or the working memory load. Our model is based on the analytic tableaux method, known from proof theory. We associate the difficulty of the Deductive Mastermind game-items with the size of the corresponding logical tree derived by the tableau method. We discuss possible empirical hypotheses based on this model, and preliminary results that prove the relevance of our theory.