abductive reasoning

Examples of abductive reasoning in the following topics:

• Reasoning and Inference

  • Reason is how we form inferences about the world; there are different types of reasoning, which have different advantages.
  • Reason and reasoning (i.e., the ability to apply reason) are associated with thinking, cognition, and intelligence.
  • Examples of abductive reasoning include a doctor making a diagnosis based on test results and a jury using evidence to pass judgment on a case: in both scenarios, there is not a 100% guarantee of correctness—just the best guess based on the available evidence.
  • The difference between abductive reasoning and inductive reasoning is a subtle one; both use evidence to form guesses that are likely, but not guaranteed, to be true.
  • However, abductive reasoning looks for cause-and-effect relationships, while induction seeks to determine general rules.

• Reasoning

  • We use many mental shortcuts when conducting inductive, deductive, abductive, and analogous reasoning to find a solution to a problem.
  • Reason or "reasoning" is associated with thinking, cognition, and intellect.
  • In order to solve problems, we utilize four major forms of reasoning: deduction, induction, abduction, and analogy.
  • However, unlike deduction, induction, or abduction where at least one premise (or the conclusion) is general, analogy concerns itself only with specifics and particulars.
  • Differentiate between the processes of induction, deduction, abduction, and analogy, discussing heuristics that are used in these processes

• Psychology and the Scientific Method

  • Several types of reasoning exist.
  • Simple reasoning involves one reason which supports one conclusion.
  • Side by side reasoning involves two independent reasons which can support one conclusion, independent of one another.
  • Joint reasoning involves two reasons from which only one conclusion can be drawn.
  • An assumption is an unstated reason, usually based on only partially on facts.

• Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Development

  • Moral reasoning in stage four is beyond the need for individual approval exhibited in stage three.
  • Democratic government is theoretically based on stage five reasoning.
  • In stage 6, moral reasoning is based on abstract reasoning using universal ethical principles.
  • She argued that women are not deficient in their moral reasoning and instead proposed that males and females reason differently: girls and women focus more on staying connected and maintaining interpersonal relationships.
  • This often occurs in moral dilemmas involving drinking and driving or business situations where participants have been shown to reason at a lower developmental stage, typically using more self-interest driven reasoning (i.e., stage two) than authority and social order obedience driven reasoning (i.e., stage four).

• Problem-Solving

  • Often, decisions are reached at the end of significant prior thought and reasoning.
  • However, there are many situations when we decide something 'spontaneously,' with little or no time to reason.
  • This leads to errors in judgment and decision-making because people tend to reason in a subjective (emotion-based) manner rather than objectively - especially when personal interests and beliefs are involved.
  • Intuition phenomenology is the ability to acquire knowledge without inference and/or the use of reason.

• Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development

  • It is characterized by the idea that children's reasoning becomes focused and logical.
  • Piaget determined that in this stage, children are able to incorporate inductive reasoning, which involves drawing inferences from observations in order to make a generalization.
  • In contrast, children struggle with deductive reasoning, which involves using a generalized principle in order to try to predict the outcome of an event.
  • This enables children to engage in the problem-solving method of developing a hypothesis and reasoning their way to plausible solutions.
  • By the end of this stage, children have developed logical and systematic thinking, are capable of deductive reasoning, and can create hypothetical ideas to explain various concepts.

• Developmental Psychology

  • Cognitive development involves learning, attention, memory, language, thinking, reasoning, and creativity.
  • Jean Piaget proposed a theory of cognitive development that explains how children think and reason as they move through various stages.

• Defining Thoughts

  • Researchers have studied thinking in the form of reasoning, how people make decisions and choices or solve problems, and how people engage in creative discovery and imaginative thought.
  • The final stage involves an increase in logic, the ability to use deductive reasoning, and an understanding of abstract ideas.

• Cognitive Development in Adolescence

  • This allows an individual to think and reason with a wider perspective.
  • This stage of cognitive development, termed by Piaget as the formal operational stage, marks a movement from an ability to think and reason from concrete visible events to an ability to think hypothetically and entertain what-if possibilities about the world.
  • An individual can solve problems through abstract concepts and utilize hypothetical and deductive reasoning.

• Executive Function and Control

  • "Executive function" is an umbrella term for the management, regulation, and control of cognitive processes, including working memory, reasoning, problem solving, social inhibition, planning, and execution.
  • Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex: associated with verbal and design fluency, set shifts, planning, response inhibition, working memory, organizational skills, reasoning, problem solving, and abstract thinking.