Acknowledgements. 1 Introduction Part 1: Elementary Reasoning Tasks 2 Theoretical Background 3 Sentence Verification 4 Transitive Inference Part 2: Syllogistic Reasoning 5 An Introduction to Syllogistic Reasoning 6 The Experimental Psychology of Syllogisms Part 3: Propositional Reasoning 7 An Introduction to Propositional Reasoning 8 Conditional Reasoning 9 The Wason Selection Task 10 Disjunctive Reasoning Part 4: Discussion 11 On Explaining the Results of Reasoning Experiments 12 Dual Processes and Beyond. References. Name Index. Subject Index.

Originally published in 1982, this was an extensive and up-to-date review of research into the psychology of deductive reasoning, Jonathan Evans presents an alternative theoretical framework to the rationalist approach which had dominated much of the published work in this field at the time.
The review falls into three sections. The first is concerned with elementary reasoning tasks, in which response latency is the prime measure of interest. The second and third sections are concerned with syllogistic and propositional reasoning respectively, in which interest has focused on the explanation of frequently observed logical errors. In an extended discussion it is argued that reasoning processes are content specific, and give little indication of the operation of any underlying system of logical competence. Finally, a dual process theory of reasoning, with broad implications and connections with other fields of psychology, is elaborated and assessed in the light of recent evidence.