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The psychology of reasoning studies how people arrive at conclusions and use them in decision-making. It covers topics such as intelligence, emotional responses, and rationality. Researchers use tasks like moral reasoning to identify reasoning patterns and cognitive processes. Theories include mental models, rule-based mental logic, and probabilistic scenarios. People can think rationally but often make mistakes in practice.
Psychologists and other behavioral scientists have a keen interest in whether people have the ability to reason rationally. The psychology of reasoning studies how people arrive at conclusions, how they communicate those conclusions, and how they use them in decision-making and problem-solving situations. Many fields of study such as linguistics, psychology, probability and cognitive science converge on what is called the psychology of reasoning. Research in the field covers a broad spectrum of topics to include intelligence, emotional responses, human development, and rationality. Within these topics, researchers try to answer a wide range of questions about the relationship between reasoning and the given topic.
Often the psychology of reasoning is process-oriented and descriptive in nature. It explains the processes that underlie the way people think and also describes the results. One of the founding fathers in the field of studies is Peter Wason, famous for his research on the “selection task”. Wason designed his research to present multiple rational dilemmas of a similar nature, in which participants in his studies had to make choices and then explain why they made those choices. Subsequently, researchers constructed explanatory paradigms related to reasoning in an attempt to demonstrate how people reason and to conclude how people can use reason to rationalize conclusions.
One such example that most people find familiar is moral reasoning. Such sorting tasks might involve deciding whether to kill one person in order to save a greater number. In one task the participant could “indirectly” cause the death of an individual to prevent several deaths, while in another task he could “directly” cause the death of an individual to save many. Study participants will then provide an explanation as to why they made each decision. Using the results of all study participants, the psychology of reasoning researchers would seek to identify the reasoning patterns and thought processes used to arrive at those conclusions.
Several theories have emerged in relation to the psychology of reasoning and the cognitive processes involved. One of the most popular postulates that humans rely on mental models to construct imaginary scenarios when faced with a dilemma. Another theory proposes that they use rule-based mental logic to draw conclusions. However, other researchers conclude that people rely on probabilistic scenarios to calculate outcomes. While not without controversy, a major conclusion often drawn is that people can and do think rationally, but often make mistakes in practice.
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