Temporal and Qualitative Decomposition of Plausible Reasoning
Abstract
The goal of this work is to detail the temporal course of information integration during plausible reasoning, with a focus on: (1) the component processes in terms of their time-courses and information content; (2) the degree to which reasoning consists of 'modular' (autonomous, independent, informationally encapsulated) stages of processing; and (3) how components of reasoning are drawn together to eventuate in a single answer to a reasoning problem. This work has involved three relevant lines of inquiry: (1) Conceptual Combination. The set of studies in this area demonstrated that claims by Springer and Murphy (1992) to the effect that conceptual combination takes place such that initial components of the combination are not activated and processed separately, are not supported. (2) Reasoning and Categorization. These studies have demonstrated that evidence from Rips (1989) that categorization can take place based on reasoning as well as on similarity, seems to be true, but only under conditions where the informational basis for categorization is quite sparse and when the subject is aware that his/her basis for the categorization must be defended.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 15, 1993
- Accession Number
- ADA275073
Entities
People
- David A. Swinney
- Edward E. Smith
Organizations
- City University of New York