The Psychology of Deductive Reasoning (Psychology Revivals)

Download or read book The Psychology of Deductive Reasoning (Psychology Revivals) written by Jonathan St. B. T. Evans and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2013-12-19 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.