Oberauer, Klaus (University of Potsdam, Germany) - Mental models in deductive reasoning


Project:	Mental models in deductive reasoning
Researchers:	Klaus Oberauer, Oliver Wilhelm (University of Mannheim), Robin Hörnig, Andrea Weidenfeld
Duration:	since 2000
Support:	This project is part of an interdisciplinary research group investigating "conflicting rules", based on a grant from Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG).
Description:	The theory of mental models (Johnson-Laird & Byrne, 1991) is one of the leading theories of deductive reasoning. In our project, we investigate how mental models are constructed from linguistic information. Sentences can be taken as instructions for cognitive procedures that build mental models. These instructions often carry an inherent directionality, leading people to construct mental models step by step in a given sequence. Figural effects in deductive reasoning can be interpreted as a consequence of the directionality of the relations involved in the premises.
	Another line of research in this project focuses on the effect of probabilistic information on the interpretation of logical relations, in particular on expressions with conditionals. The theory of mental models assumes that conditionals, like other statements, are represented by mental models of their truth conditions. Probabilistic accounts, on the other hand, regard the probability of sentences with the form "if p then q" as being equal to the conditional probability of q, given p. In a series of experiments, we tested these accounts with a probabilistic version of the truth-table evaluation paradigm. Preliminary results show that the majority of people understand conditional statements in terms of conditional probabilities. A minority, however, seems to understand them in accordance with the theory of mental models.
Resources:	Online Tests
Publications:	Oberauer, K. & Wilhelm, O. (2000). Directionality in deductive reasoning, I: The interpretation of single premises. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 26, 1702-1712.
	Oberauer, K., Wilhelm, O., & Rosas Diaz, R. (1999). Bayesian rationality for the Wason selection task? A test of optimal data selection theory. Thinking & Reasoning, 5, 115-144.

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