Study Notes on Dual-Process Theories of Deductive Reasoning

Dual-Process Theories in Cognitive Psychology

Overview of Dual-Process Theories

  • Cognitive Psychology Context: The discussion is based on the principles of dual-process theories which explain how humans think and reason.

Types of Cognitive Processes

Type 1 Processes

  • Characteristics:

    • Known as knowing how.

    • Speed: Fast processing.

    • Consciousness: Unconscious.

    • Verbalization: Not verbalizable.

    • Accessibility: Not directly accessible.

    • Nature: Automatic, procedural, and implicit.

    • Type: Sensory-motor, sub-symbolic processing.

    • Effort: Low effort required.

    • Association: Associative in nature.

    • Intuition: Intuitive responses often occur.

    • Context: Contextualized reasoning is common.

    • Biases: Tends to lead to cognitive biases.

    • System Representation: Often referred to as System 1.

Type 2 Processes

  • Characteristics:

    • Known as knowing that.

    • Speed: Slow processing.

    • Consciousness: Conscious thought involved.

    • Verbalization: Verbalizable responses.

    • Accessibility: More accessible than Type 1 processes.

    • Nature: Controlled and declarative.

    • Type: Conceptual and symbolic.

    • Effort: High effort and energy required.

    • Rule-Based: Follows specific rules for reasoning.

    • Deliberation: Deliberative and reflective.

    • Abstraction: More abstract reasoning.

    • Normative Reasoning: Tends toward normative reasoning.

    • System Representation: Often referred to as System 2.

The Wason Selection Task (1966)

  • Introduction to the Task:

    • Description: The standard abstract task involves four cards laid out on a table: values represent A, D, 3, 7 which have a letter on one side and a number on the other.

    • Hypothetical Rule: "If there is an A on one side of the card, then there is a 3 on the other side of the card."

    • Participants' Task: Identify which cards must be turned over to verify if the rule is true or false.

  • Findings from Wason's Study:

    • Error in Responses: Participants predominantly selected the A card and many also selected the A and 3 card.

    • Correct Response: The correct option is to select the A card and the 7 card.

    • Effect of Realism: Using less abstract, more realistic content significantly increases the number of correct answers.

    • Statistics: Only 10% of the participants correctly identified the necessary cards.

Conditional Inference

  • Key Forms of Logical Reasoning:

    • Modus Ponens: Logically valid statement structure.

    • Format: If $p$ then $q$; $p$ therefore $q$.

    • Denial of the Antecedent (DA):

    • Logical structure: If $p$ then $q$, not-$p$, therefore not-$q$.

    • Affirmation of the Consequent (AC):

    • Logical structure: If $p$ then $q$, $q$ therefore $p$.

    • Modus Tollens (MT):

    • Logically valid statement structure: If $p$ then $q$, not-$q$, therefore not-$p$.

Belief Bias

  • Definition:

    • "Belief bias is the tendency to judge the validity of a logical argument based on whether one agrees with the conclusion." (p. 120)

Working Memory

  • Definition and Characteristics:

    • Definition: "By ‘working memory’ I mean a single, central, and capacity-limited resource as discussed by Baddeley (2007) which has been extensively evaluated through various tasks measuring working memory capacity and its correlation with other cognitive functions (Barrett, Tugade, & Engle 2004)."

    • Cognitive Processing:

    • Type 2 processing requires and taxes working memory, whereas type 1 processing does not.

    • Example Illustrating Concepts:

    • Example statement: "If an animal is a dog, then it has a tail."

      • Response Type 1: Quick and intuitive, likely answered “yes” without effort.

      • Response Type 2: Reflective analysis of the same statement could lead to a “no” as it requires considering counterexamples, demonstrating a high effort Type 2 response.

    • Both types of reasoning utilize associative (Type 1) and reflective (Type 2) processes concurrently.

Fallacies in the Received View of Dual-Process Theory

  • Fallacy 1: All Dual-Process Theories Are Essentially the Same.

  • Fallacy 2: There Are Just Two Systems Underlying Type 1 and Type 2 Reasoning; based on the so-called two-minds hypothesis (Evans 2010).

  • Fallacy 3: Type 1 Processes Are Responsible for Cognitive Biases, and Type 2 Processes are responsible for Normatively Correct Responding.

  • Fallacy 4: Type 1 Processing is Contextualized, Whereas Type 2 Processing is Abstract.

  • Fallacy 5: Fast Processing Indicates the Use of a Type 1 Rather Than Type 2 Process.