1st Edition

The Psychology of Deductive Reasoning

By Jonathan Evans Copyright 1982
    288 Pages
    by Psychology Press

    288 Pages
    by Psychology Press

    Originally published in 1982, this was an extensive and up-to-date review of research into the psychology of deductive reasoning, Jonathan Evans presents an alternative theoretical framework to the rationalist approach which had dominated much of the published work in this field at the time.

    The review falls into three sections. The first is concerned with elementary reasoning tasks, in which response latency is the prime measure of interest. The second and third sections are concerned with syllogistic and propositional reasoning respectively, in which interest has focused on the explanation of frequently observed logical errors. In an extended discussion it is argued that reasoning processes are content specific, and give little indication of the operation of any underlying system of logical competence. Finally, a dual process theory of reasoning, with broad implications and connections with other fields of psychology, is elaborated and assessed in the light of recent evidence.

    Acknowledgements.  1 Introduction  Part 1: Elementary Reasoning Tasks  2 Theoretical Background  3 Sentence Verification  4 Transitive Inference  Part 2: Syllogistic Reasoning  5 An Introduction to Syllogistic Reasoning  6 The Experimental Psychology of Syllogisms  Part 3: Propositional Reasoning  7 An Introduction to Propositional Reasoning  8 Conditional Reasoning  9 The Wason Selection Task  10 Disjunctive Reasoning  Part 4: Discussion  11 On Explaining the Results of Reasoning Experiments  12 Dual Processes and Beyond.  References.  Name Index.  Subject Index.

    Biography

    Evans, Jonathan