Inductive Reasoning

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Cognitive psychology has been defined as the psychology of understanding and knowing. It has also been described as the study of mental processes. However, A more precise definition of cognitive psychology is that it is the study of the way in which the brain processes information. It concerns the way we take in information from the outside world, how we make sense of that information, and what use we make of it. Cognition is thus a rather broad umbrella term which includes many component processes, which partly explains why psychologists have found it difficult to come up with a simple and unified definition of cognitive psychology. Clearly, cognition involves various different…show more content…
Research has considered both deductive reasoning tasks and inductive reasoning tasks. The distinction between deductive and inductive reasoning is that whereas with deductive reasoning the conclusion is certain, with inductive reasoning the conclusion is highly probable but not necessarily true. Deductive reasoning entails problems for which a normative solution is available, namely that required by the logical systems, and the subjects’ responses can be measured as either correct or incorrect against such a criterion. Certain statements or premises are provided and the task is to decide on whether the validity of the conclusion that follows is true. Inductive reasoning entails reaching conclusions which the subject cannot be certain are true, and in this sense the conclusion may be regarded as a hypothesis, the validity of which would have to be tested (Groome, 1999). One important difference between inductive and deductive reasoning is that deductive reasoning problems can be solved without (or despite) real-world knowledge. In the above example, a child can make a logical deduction about Rex barking even if “barking” is a totally unfamiliar activity. If the child had been told instead “Rex is a cat. All cats bark. Does Rex bark?”, then the correct deduction would again be that Rex must also bark, even though in the real world cats do not bark (thus the logical deduction…show more content…
He thought that there was a clear relationship between language development and cognitive development (Oakley, 2004). Several theoretical approaches have been developed to link between individuals and their social and cultural context. All these approaches are concerned with children’s development, and how it relates to, and is affected by, the social environment in which they learn and grow (Ireson, 2008). Vygotsky felt that language was necessary for an individual to organise their thought. He placed more emphasis on the importance of language development than Piaget did (Oakley, 2004). Piaget thinks that the success in learning is a motivation for the learner in itself for learning further. Motivation deals with the causes of people’s behaviour, it attempts to explain why we behave in the way that we do (Gorman,
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