Reasoning: -A thought process that brings us to a conclusion and make decisions. It is influenced by all cognitive domains. What we attend to and what we remember can affect our reasoning. -An assumption is that we reason, or judge based on facts and logic. -In reality, reasoning is influenced by our ideas about how things work and our beliefs. Are we born to think logically? -Infants watched animations of two objects with similar tops -The two objects were placed behind a screen; one was scooped up and placed in a bucket with only the top visible -The screen was lowered to show the other object to show the other object that wasn't scooped up -> infants should use logic to infer that the non-shown object was in the bucket -To test this, the object in the bucket was shown -> infants looked longer at the object during the test phase only when it was inconsistent with logic. -This test was designed to make the objects look the same from the top But we act illogically: -Once convinced of a belief, we stick to it -> political conversations are not very productive -We make faulty links between events -> superstitious actions -We consider complex ideas to this or that -> do you like dogs or cats? Pranks and the lack of logic: -1957: BBC aired a documentary about a Swiss spaghetti trees and people called the network asking to buy these tress. -1998: Burger King introduced a new item to its menu: the left handed whopper. Deductive vs Inductive reasoning: -Deductive reasoning: when you have a general idea and use it to test if specific instances lead to a logical conclusion. Starting with the principle of truth and you use it to make a logical prediction about something. Such as the scientific method of testing general theories. -Inductive reasoning: Making general conclusions from specific observations. Bottom up form of reasoning because we are looking out at observations and making conclusions. Testing what is probably but not totally true. Deductive reasoning: Syllogisms: -Statements with premises and conclusion that you use deductive reasoning to determine if the conclusion is correct. -Premises are the parts of a reason that work together to support a conclusion. -Syllogisms: deductive reasoning problems that are verbal statements that involve two premises and a conclusion. -The premises are presumed to be true. -Categoric syllogisms are premises that begin with all, no or some and take the following format: major premise, minor premise, conclusion. Valid vs Invalid syllogisms: -Validity depends on whether the conclusion follows those premises. -The logical form and not the content -Different that everyday use of the term validity. -Conclusion is true based on those premises. -Valid syllogism: All A are B, All C are A, Therefore all C are B -> Conclusion follows the premises statements. -Invalid syllogism: All A are B, All C are B, Therefore all C are A -> Premises "If A, then B" Conclusion < Evaluate Premises 1 Coffee is a