Reason Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Psychology and cognitive science=== {{See also|Psychology of reasoning}} Scientific research into reasoning is carried out within the fields of [[psychology]] and [[cognitive science]]. Psychologists attempt to determine whether or not people are capable of rational thought in a number of different circumstances. Assessing how well someone engages in reasoning is the project of determining the extent to which the person is [[Rationality|rational]] or acts rationally. It is a key research question in the [[psychology of reasoning]] and cognitive science of reasoning. [[Rationality]] is often divided into its respective [[Rationality#Theoretical and practical|theoretical and practical counterparts]]. ====Behavioral experiments on human reasoning==== Experimental cognitive psychologists carry out research on reasoning behaviour. Such research may focus, for example, on how people perform on tests of reasoning such as [[Intelligence tests|intelligence]] or [[IQ]] tests, or on how well people's reasoning matches ideals set by logic (see, for example, the [[Wason test]]).<ref>{{cite book|last=Manktelow|first=K.I.|year=1999|title=Reasoning and Thinking (Cognitive Psychology: Modular Course)|location=Hove, Sussex|publisher=Psychology Press}}</ref> Experiments examine how people make inferences from conditionals like ''if A then B'' and how they make inferences about alternatives like ''A or else B''.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Johnson-Laird|first1=P.N.|last2=Byrne|first2=R.M.J.|year=1991|title=Deduction|location=Hillsdale|publisher=Erlbaum}}</ref> They test whether people can make valid deductions about spatial and temporal relations like ''A is to the left of B'' or ''A happens after B'', and about quantified assertions like ''all the A are B''.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Johnson-Laird|first1=P.N.|year=2006|title=How we reason|location=Oxford|publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref> Experiments investigate how people make inferences about factual situations, hypothetical possibilities, probabilities, and [[counterfactual thinking|counterfactual]] situations.<ref>{{cite book|last=Byrne|first=R.M.J.|year=2005|title=The Rational Imagination: How People Create Counterfactual Alternatives to Reality|location=Cambridge, Mass.|publisher=MIT Press}}</ref> ====Developmental studies of children's reasoning==== Developmental psychologists investigate the development of reasoning from birth to adulthood. Piaget's [[theory of cognitive development]] was the first complete theory of reasoning development. Subsequently, several alternative theories were proposed, including the [[neo-Piagetian theories of cognitive development]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Demetriou|first=A.|year=1998|chapter=Cognitive development|editor-first1=A.|editor-last1=Demetriou|editor-first2=W.|editor-last2=Doise|editor-first3=K.F.M.|editor-last3=van Lieshout|title=Life-span developmental psychology|pages=179–269|location=London|publisher=Wiley}}</ref> ====Neuroscience of reasoning==== {{citation needed section|date=September 2023}} The biological functioning of the brain is studied by [[neurophysiologist]]s, [[Cognitive neuroscience|cognitive neuroscientists]], and [[neuropsychologist]]s. This includes research into the structure and function of normally functioning brains, and of damaged or otherwise unusual brains. In addition to carrying out research into reasoning, some psychologists—for example [[clinical psychologist]]s and [[psychotherapists]]—work to alter people's reasoning habits when those habits are unhelpful. Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page