A wide range of essential reasoning tasks rely on contradiction identification, a cornerstone of human rationality, communication and debate founded on the inversion of the logical operators ‘‘Every’’ and ‘‘Some.’’ A high-density electroencephalographic (EEG) study was performed in 11 normal young adults. The cerebral network involved in the identification of contradiction included the orbito-frontal and anterior-cingulate cortices and the temporo-polar cortices. The event-related dynamic of this network showed an early negative deflection lasting 500 ms after sentence presentation. This was followed by a positive deflection lasting 1.5 s, which was different for the two logical operators. A lesser degree of network activation (either in neuron number or their level of phase locking or both) occurred while processing statements with ‘‘Some,’’ suggesting that this was a relatively simpler scenario with one example to be figured out, instead of the many examples or the absence of a counterexample searched for while processing statements with ‘‘Every.’’

Universal and Particular Contradiction in Human Reasoning

CASADIO, Claudia;
2009-01-01

Abstract

A wide range of essential reasoning tasks rely on contradiction identification, a cornerstone of human rationality, communication and debate founded on the inversion of the logical operators ‘‘Every’’ and ‘‘Some.’’ A high-density electroencephalographic (EEG) study was performed in 11 normal young adults. The cerebral network involved in the identification of contradiction included the orbito-frontal and anterior-cingulate cortices and the temporo-polar cortices. The event-related dynamic of this network showed an early negative deflection lasting 500 ms after sentence presentation. This was followed by a positive deflection lasting 1.5 s, which was different for the two logical operators. A lesser degree of network activation (either in neuron number or their level of phase locking or both) occurred while processing statements with ‘‘Some,’’ suggesting that this was a relatively simpler scenario with one example to be figured out, instead of the many examples or the absence of a counterexample searched for while processing statements with ‘‘Every.’’
2009
Inglese
STAMPA
47 (1)
5111
5111
1
Human reasoning; contradiction; Syllogism
8
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
262
Mt, Medaglia; F., Tecchio; S., Seri; G., Di Lorenzo; Vm, Abrusci; Casadio, Claudia; Pm, Rossini; C., Porcaro
1 Contributo su Rivista::1.1 Articolo in rivista
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11564/168172
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