Search Papers | Poster Sessions | All Posters
Poster A41 in Poster Session A - Tuesday, August 6, 2024, 4:15 – 6:15 pm, Johnson Ice Rink
Deductive and Inductive Processing Dissociate in the Human Brain
Hope H Kean1 (), Alex Fung1, Josh Rule2, Josh B Tenenbaum1, Steve Piantadosi2, Evelina Fedorenko1; 1MIT, 2Berkeley
Logical deduction and induction are fundamental components of human reasoning that have been argued to be distinct on theoretical grounds. However, it is unclear whether empirically, these are dissociable cognitive processes, or instead, instances of the same underlying cognitive operation. The representational format of logical reasoning has also been debated, with some arguing for linguistic representations, but others advocating for a symbolic but non-linguistic ‘language of thought (LOT)’ in which all logical reasoning is performed. Here, we use brain imaging (fMRI) to address both these questions and find that i) deduction and induction are neurally dissociable, and ii) neither form of reasoning relies on linguistic representations.
Keywords: induction deduction logic language