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Does studying logic improve logical reasoning?

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conference contribution
posted on 2016-06-02, 12:50 authored by Nina Attridge, Andrew Aberdein, Matthew Inglis
There has long been debate over whether studying mathematics improves one’s logical reasoning skills. In fact, it is even unclear whether studying logic improves one’s logical reasoning skills. A previous study found no improvement in conditional reasoning behaviour in students taking a semester long course in logic. However, the reasoning task employed in that study has since been criticised, and may not be a valid measure of reasoning. Here, we investigated the development of abstract conditional reasoning skills in students taking a course in formal logic, using a more sophisticated measure. Students who had previous experience of logic improved significantly, while students with no previous experience did not improve. Our results suggest that it is possible to teach logical thinking, given a certain degree of exposure.

History

School

  • Science

Department

  • Mathematics Education Centre

Published in

Proceedings of the 40th Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education

Citation

ATTRIDGE, N., ABERDEIN, A. and INGLIS, M., 2016. Does studying logic improve logical reasoning? IN: Proceedings of the 40th Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, Szeged, Hungary, 3-7 August 2016.

Publisher

© The Author. Published by IGPME

Version

  • NA (Not Applicable or Unknown)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Acceptance date

2015-04-13

Publication date

2016

Notes

This is a conference paper.

Language

  • en

Location

Szeged

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