Principles of Reasoning: Study Guide

Below is a list of student learning objectives for each week. In each exam, you will be tested only on these objectives, so this page serves as a study guide for the exams. This page will be updated periodically to reflect our progress in the course. In order to keep up with the course, by the end of each week, you should be able to do the tasks listed.

If you have any question, don’t hesitate to email me at ishiday@ohio.edu (or through the email tool on Blackboard).

By the end of each week below, you should be able to what is listed. The lectures and the questions given in the lectures are designed to help you achieve these objectives. So be sure to review the lectures and do the questions to test your mastery.

Week 1

  1. Define inference, reasoning, argument, premises, and conclusion.
  2. Give examples of reasoning and unconscious inference.
  3. Present reasoning in the standard form of an argument as discussed in the lecture.

Week 2

  1. Give an example of reasoning in decision making.
  2. Define the framing effect, and give an example.
  3. Reconstruct possible answers to the disease problem in the standard form of an argument. (See Question 1 at the end of this week’s lecture.)
  4. Reconstruct examples of reasoning in the Kid Logic episode in the standard form of an argument. (See Questions 8 and 9.)
  5. Define a cognitive bias, and explain why the framing effect in the disease problem counts as a cognitive bias.
  6. Define validity and invalidity. Give examples of valid and invalid arguments.
  7. Use the method of counterexamples to show that a given argument is invalid. (See Question 13.)
  8. Define the belief bias.

Week 3

  1. Use the method of counterexamples to show the invalidity of certain arguments with true premises and conclusions. (See examples given in the lecture.)
  2. Describe Type 1 and Type 2 processes according to the dual process theory (as formulated by Evans and Stanovich).
  3. Briefly explain the idea of cognitive decoupling as it is used in the description of Type 2 processes. (One well-chosen sentence would suffice.)

Exam 1 covers Weeks 1–3.

Week 4

  1. Explain the distinguishing features of deductive reasoning.
  2. Explain the distinguishing features of inductive reasoning.
  3. Explain the meaning of the term “follow from” (as in “this conclusion follows from the premises”).
  4. Explain the meaning of the term “entailment.”
  5. Define soundness.
  6. Define inductive strength.
  7. Define reliability.

Week 5

  1. State the three things that make up a formal system.
  2. Prove the MEOW-validity of arguments, using MEOW.
  3. Distinguish simple and complex strings of SL.
  4. Distinguish strings and non-strings of SL.
  5. Symbolize elementary English sentences into SL.

Week 6

  1. Symbolize arguments stated in English into the language of SL.
  2. Use parentheses in symbolization to accurately represent the meaning of English sentences.
  3. State the rules of inference MP, MT, and DN.
  4. Prove the validity of arguments by constructing formal proofs in SL. (The available rules of inference so far are MP, MT, and DN.)

Exam 2 covers Weeks 4–6.

Week 7

  1. Define the concept of a formal fallacy.
  2. Describe affirming the consequent and denying the antecedent.
  3. State the rules of inference Simp, Conj, and CS.
  4. Prove the validity of arguments by constructing formal proofs in SL. (The available rules so far are MP, MT, DN, Simp, Conj, and CS.)

Week 8

  1. State the rule of inference DS.
  2. Symbolize the exclusive “or” in SL.
  3. Define a contradiction in SL.
  4. Prove the validity of arguments by constructing formal proofs in SL. (The available rules so far are MP, MT, DN, Simp, Conj, CS, and DS.)

Week 9

  1. State the rule of inference RA.
  2. Prove the validity of arguments by using RA in formal proofs in SL.
  3. Prove the validity of arguments by constructing formal proofs in SL. (The available rules so far are MP, MT, DN, Simp, Conj, CS, DS, and RA.)

Exam 3 covers Weeks 7–9.

Week 10

  1. State the conventions of Normality and Certainty.
  2. Symbolize probabilities of simple and complex sentences.
  3. Determine probabilities using the conventions.

Week 11

  1. State the rules for the probabilities of conjunctions, disjunctions, and negations.
  2. Symbolize and determine the probabilities, using the rules you learned so far.

Week 12

  1. Give the correct answer to the Linda problem, using the rules of probability theory.
  2. State the conjunction fallacy.
  3. Define a heuristic in the sense of Tversky and Kahneman.
  4. State the representativeness heuristic.

Exam 4 covers Weeks 10–12.