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Do nonlinguistic creatures deploy mental symbols for logical connectives in reasoning?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 September 2023

Susan Carey Open the ORCID record for Susan Carey [Opens in a new window]
Susan Carey*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA scarey@wjh.harvard.edu https://www.harvardlds.org/our-labs/carey-lab/susan-carey/
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Abstract

Some nonlinguistic systems of representation display some of the six features of a language-of-thought (LoT) delineated by Quilty-Dunn et al. But they conjecture something stronger: That all six features cooccur homeostatically in nonlinguistic thought. Here I argue that there is no good evidence for nonlinguistic deductive reasoning involving the disjunctive syllogism. Animals and prelinguistic children probably do not make logical inferences.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 46 , 2023 , e267
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

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