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Deduction as Verbal Reasoning

Most theories of deduction have assumed that linguistic processes transduce from language into an internal representation and back again, and that non-linguistic processes are central to deduction itself. We propose that for deduction tasks for which the necessary information is provided verbally, the heart of deduction for untrained participants involves repeatedly reencoding the problem, a type of behavior referred to here as verbal reasoning. We have shown that model theory accounts of behavior on most deduction tasks are consistent with verbal reasoning and that verbal reasoning can account for detailed behavior in a single task; a computational model of syllogistic reasoning--VR--based on linguistic mechanisms we developed. VR models all of the standard phenomena, makes a number of accurate novel predictions, and fits the behavior of individual participants with an accuracy that rivals their own test-retest reliability.