Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 204 views

    Logical Reasoning: - What Is Reasoning? - What Is Logic? - Can People Reason Logically?

    Uploaded by

    gurutheboss1
    Logical reasoning involves going beyond the information given to draw conclusions. There are two main types of reasoning: deductive reasoning, which allows conclusions that must be true given the premises, and inductive reasoning, which allows expanding on conclusions but the conclusions may not be necessarily true. People are generally good at simple logical reasoning with operators like AND and OR but have more difficulties with complex arguments in unfamiliar contexts. Content and real-world knowledge can influence people's logical reasoning abilities.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Logical Reasoning: - What Is Reasoning? - What Is Logic? - Can People Reason Logically?

    Uploaded by

    gurutheboss1
    204 views5 pages
    Logical reasoning involves going beyond the information given to draw conclusions. There are two main types of reasoning: deductive reasoning, which allows conclusions that must be true given the premises, and inductive reasoning, which allows expanding on conclusions but the conclusions may not be necessarily true. People are generally good at simple logical reasoning with operators like AND and OR but have more difficulties with complex arguments in unfamiliar contexts. Content and real-world knowledge can influence people's logical reasoning abilities.

    Original Title

    Reasoning 1

    Copyright

    © Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)

    Available Formats

    PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Logical reasoning involves going beyond the information given to draw conclusions. There are two main types of reasoning: deductive reasoning, which allows conclusions that must be true given the premises, and inductive reasoning, which allows expanding on conclusions but the conclusions may not be necessarily true. People are generally good at simple logical reasoning with operators like AND and OR but have more difficulties with complex arguments in unfamiliar contexts. Content and real-world knowledge can influence people's logical reasoning abilities.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    204 views5 pages

    Logical Reasoning: - What Is Reasoning? - What Is Logic? - Can People Reason Logically?

    Uploaded by

    gurutheboss1
    Logical reasoning involves going beyond the information given to draw conclusions. There are two main types of reasoning: deductive reasoning, which allows conclusions that must be true given the premises, and inductive reasoning, which allows expanding on conclusions but the conclusions may not be necessarily true. People are generally good at simple logical reasoning with operators like AND and OR but have more difficulties with complex arguments in unfamiliar contexts. Content and real-world knowledge can influence people's logical reasoning abilities.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    You are on page 1of 5

    Logical Reasoning

    • What is reasoning?
    • What is logic?
    • Can people reason logically?

    What is reasoning?
    • The world does not give us complete information
    Might want to assume
    that there is a party.
    Would not want to
    assume that this is
    lunch.

    • Reasoning is the set of processes that enables us to


    go beyond the information given.

    What types of reasoning are there?


    • Deductive reasoning
    – Allows us to draw conclusions that must hold
    given a set of facts (premises)
    • Inductive reasoning
    – Allows us to expand on conclusions
    – Conclusions need not be true given premises.
    – Category-based induction
    – Analogical reasoning
    – Mental models

    1
    Deduction: An example
    • You have tickets to a game
    • You agree to meet Bill and Mary at the
    corner of 21st and Speedway or at the seats.
    – If you see Mary on the corner of 21st and
    Speedway, you expect to see Bill as well.
    – If you do not see either of them at the corner,
    you expect to see them at the seats when you
    get to the stadium.
    • This seems simple.
    – How do you generate this expectation?

    The logic of the situation


    • The agreement has a logical form
    (Bill AND Mary) will be located at corner OR
    (Bill AND Mary) will be located at seats

    • AND and OR are logical operators


    – They have truth tables.
    AND(A,B) OR(A,B)
    A is FALSE A is TRUE A is FALSE A is TRUE
    B is FALSE FALSE FALSE B is FALSE FALSE TRUE
    B is TRUE FALSE TRUE B is TRUE TRUE TRUE

    Simple logical arguments


    • If you see Mary

    Bill AND Mary


    Premises
    Mary
    Bill Conclusion

    • You expect to see Bill


    AND(A,B)
    A is FALSE A is TRUE
    B is FALSE FALSE FALSE
    B is TRUE FALSE TRUE

    2
    Another logical argument
    • If Mary and Bill are not on the corner
    (Bill AND Mary) will be located at corner OR
    (Bill AND Mary) will be located at seats
    NOT (Bill AND Mary) located at corner
    (Bill AND Mary) located at seats

    • You expect to see them at the seats


    OR(A,B)
    A is FALSE A is TRUE
    B is FALSE FALSE TRUE
    B is TRUE TRUE TRUE

    Limits of logical reasoning


    • We are good at this kind of reasoning
    – We do it all the time.
    – We can do it in novel situations
    • Are we good at all kinds of logical reasoning?
    • What are our limitations.

    An example
    Each card has a letter on one side, and a number on the other.
    Which Cards must you turn over to test the rule:
    If there is a vowel on one side of the card,
    then there is an odd number on the other side

    A B C D

    3
    What about this case?
    Who do you have to check?

    If you have a beer, then you must be 21 or older?

    23 19
    A B C D

    These cases are logically the same


    Valid Arguments: If premises are true, conclusion must be true
    Affirming the Antecedent Denying the Consequent
    P->Q P->Q
    P NOT Q
    Q (Modus Ponens) NOT P (Modus Tollens)

    Invalid Arguments: Conclusion need not be true, even if premises are true.

    Affirming the Consequent Denying the Antecedent


    P->Q P->Q
    Q NOT P
    P NOT Q

    Logic and content


    • Pure logic says that we should be able to reason
    about any content.
    – The Ps and Qs in the argument could be anything
    • Earlier we saw content effects
    – Wason selection task
    • With neutral content it is hard
    • With familiar content it is easy
    • Social schemas are easy to reason about
    – Cheng & Holyoak; Tooby & Cosmides
    – Permission: Some precondition must be filled in
    order to carry out some action.

    4
    Other content effects
    • We are more likely to accept an argument when
    the conclusion is true (in the real world)
    All professors are educators
    Some educators are smart
    Some professors are smart

    • This conclusion may be true


    – The argument is not valid
    – It is possible that the smart educators are not
    professors

    So where does this leave us?


    • We are good with simple logical operators
    – AND, OR, NOT
    • More complex argument forms can be difficult in
    unfamiliar contexts.
    • Why do we see these content effects?
    – Valid deductive arguments ensure that a conclusion is
    true if the premises are true
    – Truth cannot be determined with certainty
    – Thus, we must generally reason about content.
    • We will look at how people reason about content.

    You might also like