title: The Effect of Sentential and Abstract Rules on Implicational Reasoning and Judgment.
abstract: Reasoning with implication has been studied with a variety of tasks in different studies. Results have been conflicting, leading to the conclusion that Ss interpret implication inconsistently. The present study attempted to determine whether individual Ss do interpret implication inconsistently as task and rule content are varied. Twenty male and female undergraduates performed abstract judgment, abstract inference, verbal (ordinary sentential English) judgment, and verbal inference tasks. It was found that Ss were inconsistent, treating implication as the biconditional in verbal tasks, as conjunction with abstract tasks. Consistency within content but across judgment-inference tasks was observed, though more strongly for verbal than abstract materials. It was argued that untutored Ss have two modes of implication, a "causal" mode resembling the biconditional and a "matching" mode resembling conjunction. Few Ss interpreted "if… then" as material implication.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , Virginia Commonwealth University , USA.
authors.forename: Thomas H
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Leahey