Reasoning
Reasoning is the human effort to organize concrete facts and abstract logical principles in an effort to arrive at reliable conclusions. Reasoning can either be good or poor.
Types of reasoning include:
- Deductive reasoning: Reasoning by which an individual seeks to test or demonstrate the truth of a proposition by establishing premises, and organizing them into a syllogism;
- Inductive reasoning: Reasoning by which an individual observes facts about the physical universe, and infers that because something is always observed to be true, it is always true;
- Abductive reasoning: Reasoning by which a person collects facts, seeks to develop the most reasonable explanation for the facts, and concludes that the explanation is likely true
- Logical reasoning is a form of rational thinking that focuses on drawing conclusions from information using structural thinking and a rigorous approach. It involves analyzing premises and assumptions to see if they sufficently support a conclusion and ensuring the conclusion is reasonable based on the given evidence.
- Evidence-based thinking: Evidence-based thinking is a mental process that uses the best available evidence to make sound decisions. It uses inferences to the best explanations.
- Critical thinking: Critical thinking is an approach to gathering data and making inferences about the world. It draws heavily on ideas from the scientific revolution and advocates an approach of data acquisition and rational assessment.
- Circular reasoning: Faulty reasoning by which a person makes an argument for the truth of a proposition which depends on the truth of the proposition it attempts to prove;
- Logical fallacy: Other types of faulty reasoning;
Evidence-based thinking
See also: Evidence-based thinking
Evidence-based thinking is a mental process that uses the best available evidence to make sound decisions. It uses inferences to the best explanations. It is often used in many fields, including science, engineering, healthcare, education, and business.
Two small studies from the same research group at the University of California, Berkeley suggest that intensive LSAT preparation can improve logical reasoning skills, with some limited transfer to an unpracticed reasoning task. Neither study found evidence that it improves reading comprehension. Both studies were small and did not randomly assign participants, so their findings should be treated as preliminary.
First study: Three months of LSAT preparation
- Intensive Reasoning Training Alters Patterns of Brain Connectivity at Rest, The Journal of Neuroscience, March 13, 2013. 33(11): 4796–4803
In a 2013 study in The Journal of Neuroscience, researchers followed 25 young adults taking an LSAT course with about 70 hours of reasoning instruction and compared them with 24 age- and IQ-matched controls who planned to take the LSAT later.[1]
- The students' practice-test scores rose significantly over the course, although the control group did not take practice tests, so these gains could not be compared with theirs.
- Scores rose on the Logical Reasoning section and on the Analytical Reasoning ("Logic Games") section, which LSAC removed from the test in August 2024.
- Reading Comprehension scores did not change significantly.
- Brain scans showed strengthened connections between frontal and parietal regions associated with reasoning, compared with the control group.
Second study: Improvement on an unfamiliar reasoning task
- Characterizing Behavioral and Brain Changes Associated with Practicing Reasoning Skills, PLoS One. 2015 Sep 14; 10(9): e0137627. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0137627
A 2015 study in PLOS ONE by the same research group tested whether the reasoning gains carried over to tasks the students had not practiced.[2]
- Students in an LSAT course improved more than controls on a non-verbal task that required integrating relationships between pieces of information (judging relative weights from balance scales), a task unlike the text-based questions they had practiced.
- They showed no comparable gains on a second unpracticed task that required generating rules, or on tests of working memory and processing speed.
- The authors described their results as preliminary because participants were not randomly assigned and the control group did not take a comparable course.
See also
- ↑ Allyson P. Mackey, Alison T. Miller Singley and Silvia A. Bunge, "Intensive Reasoning Training Alters Patterns of Brain Connectivity at Rest", The Journal of Neuroscience 33, no. 11 (2013): 4796–4803.
- ↑ Allyson P. Mackey, Alison T. Miller Singley, Carter Wendelken and Silvia A. Bunge, "Characterizing Behavioral and Brain Changes Associated with Practicing Reasoning Skills", PLOS ONE 10, no. 9 (2015): e0137627.