ABSTRACT
This riddle illustrates a transitive relation. A relation is transitive if, given that it holds between items A and B and between items Band C, then it necessarily also holds between items A and C. Examples are bigger than, smaller than, and darker than. Thus, a transitive relation implies an underlying series, and so problems of this type are also known as n-term series problems (where n stands for the number of items, in this case three) . Problems of this type have interested mankind, at least since Aristotle, and were incorporated into modern psychology around the beginning of this century (Burt, 1911) . What has fascinated psychologists about the transitive inference problem is that it appears to demand that a subject go beyond the information given to deduce a relationship between items that have not been presented together. In the above example, the subject needs to deduce the relationship between Mighty Joe Young and Magilla Gorilla from the relationships of Mighty Joe Young with King Kong, and King Kong with Magilla Gorilla.
