Open AccessLinguistic barriers to logical reasoning: a new perspective on Aristotelian syllogisms
Author(s) -
Andreas Haida,
Luka Crnič,
Yosef Grodzinsky
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
zas papers in linguistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1435-9588
DOI - 10.21248/zaspil.60.2018.476
Subject(s) - syllogism , deductive reasoning , logical reasoning , variation (astronomy) , perspective (graphical) , analytic reasoning , computer science , verbal reasoning , reasoning system , argument (complex analysis) , artificial intelligence , cognitive psychology , natural language processing , linguistics , cognitive science , psychology , cognition , philosophy , medicine , physics , neuroscience , astrophysics
Experimental studies investigating logical reasoning performance show very high errorrates of up to 80% and more. Previous research identified scalar inferences of the sentencesof logical arguments as a major error source. We present new analytical tools to quantify theimpact of scalar inferences on syllogistic reasoning. Our proposal builds on a new classificationof Aristotelian syllogisms and a closely linked classification of reasoning behaviors/strategies.We argue that the variation in error rates across syllogistic reasoning tasks is in part due toindividual variation: reasoners follow different reasoning strategies and these strategies playout differently for syllogisms of different classes.Keywords: syllogisms, reasoning errors, individual variation, scalar inferences.