Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 March 2011
Mercier and Sperber (M&S) sketch a bleak picture of logical reasoning in classic, nonargumentative tasks. I argue that recent processing data indicate that despite people's poor performance they at least seek to adhere to traditional logical norms in these tasks. This implies that classic reasoning tasks are less artificial–and logical reasoning less exceptional–than M&S's framework suggests.
Target article
The freak in all of us: Logical truth seeking without argumentation
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