{"pk":24784,"title":"Logical language and the development of reasoning by the disjunctive syllogism","subtitle":null,"abstract":"Whether logical inference is available without language is highly debated. One such inference is the disjunctive syllogism (A Or B, Not A, Therefore B). Evidence from non-linguistic search tasks suggests that that the syllogism may be unavailable before age 3 (Mody & Carey, 2016). However, in a replication of the same task using language (i.e., verbal negation), even 2.5-year-olds succeeded (Grigoroglou, et al., 2019). Here we explore the role of language in children's logical reasoning. 2.5-, 3- and 4-year-olds performed a non-linguistic search task, after a short training in reasoning by exclusion. Half of the children received linguistic training (e.g., heard “there is no coin in X cup”); half received non-linguistic training (i.e., saw that one location was empty). Results show that 2.5-year-olds who received linguistic training succeeded in disjunctive syllogism but those who received non-linguistic training failed. We conclude that the presence of verbal negation facilitated logical reasoning.","language":"eng","license":{"name":"","short_name":"","text":null,"url":""},"keywords":[{"word":"Psychology; Development; Language and thought; Language development; Reasoning; Developmental analysis"}],"section":"Abstracts","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1bb851qz","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Myrto","middle_name":"","last_name":"Grigoroglou","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of Toronto","department":""},{"first_name":"Salima","middle_name":"","last_name":"Hackeek","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of Toronto","department":""},{"first_name":"Patricia","middle_name":"","last_name":"Ganea","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of Toronto","department":""}],"date_submitted":null,"date_accepted":null,"date_published":"2024-01-01T19:00:00+01:00","render_galley":{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/24784/galley/21350/download/"},"galleys":[{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/24784/galley/14382/download/"},{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/24784/galley/18239/download/"},{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/24784/galley/21350/download/"}]}