Day 115 of 120 Logic Difficulty 5/10

Holding two contradictory answers diagnoses two reasoning systems

Quick answer

Holding two contradictory answers diagnoses two reasoning systems. Today's question (The empirical case for two reasoning systems) asks about a finding from Sloman, S. A. in 1996. The correct option is Cases where a person simultaneously holds an intuitive judgment and a contradicting reflective conclusion about the same problem — full explanation, primary source, and glossary cross-links below.

Today's question

Sloman (1996) argued that the strongest empirical evidence for two reasoning systems is:

  1. A Demographic differences in education
  2. B Cases where a person simultaneously holds an intuitive judgment and a contradicting reflective conclusion about the same problem
  3. C Cross-linguistic differences in vocabulary
  4. D Variation in handedness across populations
Reveal the answer and explanation

Correct: B — Cases where a person simultaneously holds an intuitive judgment and a contradicting reflective conclusion about the same problem

Sloman (1996) argued that dissociations within a single mind — feeling that a conjunction of events is more probable than its component while knowing it cannot be — provide a stronger case for two systems than mere differences across people or tasks. He proposed an associative system (similarity- and contiguity-based) and a rule-based system (formal, symbolic), with the two often arriving at different answers to the same problem. The framework anticipated later dual-process accounts and is still cited as a careful articulation of how 'two systems' can be diagnosed without overclaiming neuroanatomical separation.

About the source

Sloman, S. A. (1996). The empirical case for two systems of reasoning. Psychological Bulletin, 119(1), 3–22.

Every Cognition Bible question cites a primary source — a paper, book chapter, or monograph that exists, that we can point to on Google Scholar, and whose finding the question accurately summarizes. No fabricated authority strings, no name-drops without paper-level grounding.

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