Psychology 3130A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Modus Ponens, Deductive Reasoning, Confirmation Bias

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 3130A/B
• Professor: John Paul Minda

Document Summary

Lecture 7 deduction: going beyond the given information to comprehend a situation, discovering something new by thinking, deductive reasoning is absolute. Logic: formal description of reasoning, facts, operators, or (also and, not, ifthen) A valid conclusion is one in which the given conclusion is the only possible conclusion given the truth of the premises. Logical structure determines if an argument is valid or not. This is regardless of perceived truth or real- world knowledge. As long as the premises are true, a valid argument guarantees the truth of the conclusion. A and b are easier than a and c: positive terms easier than negative terms. Categorical syllogisms: classical reasoning implicit assumption of the classical model, categorical reasoning about a whole class or category, there are 4. ( some" means at least one, universal affirmative . Affirmative some b are a: universal negative . Conditional reasoning: modus ponens affirming the antecedent (affirming what is affirmable).