Properties of inductive reasoning.
This paper reviews the main psychological phenomena of inductive reasoning, covering 25 years of experimental and model-based research, in particular addressing four questions. First, what makes a case or event generalizable to other cases? Second, what makes a set of cases generalizable? Third, what makes a property or predicate projectable? Fourth, how do psychological models of induction address these results? The key results in inductive reasoning are outlined, and several recent models, including a new Bayesian account, are evaluated with respect to these results. In addition, future directions for experimental and model-based work are proposed.
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Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, Coventry, England. e.heit@warwick.ac.uk
D000328:Adult; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D002648:Child; D005793:Generalization, Psychological; D006801:Humans; D008128:Logic; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011337:Probability Learning; D012718:Set, Psychology