Language, logic and reasoning - rules theory or mental models

Abstract

In present research there was shown the issue of connection between reasoning and logical competence. The point of view of rules theory and mental models theory concerning discussed range of problems was presented and subsequently the prediction of rules theory was verified. The results of the survey conducted on 70 people: 37 students of philosophy and 33 students of other courses at University of Lodz let us reject rules theory as a predictive to the proceedings of reasoning process and induce to accept an alternative theory explaining the proceedings of the discussed process. The adduced research proved that the level of logical competence does not differentiate the surveyed with respect to the level of reasoning’s correctness and it does not influence the constancy of selection of the reasoning’s patterns.