归纳推理的认知神经机制

归纳推理是从特殊推导至一般的高级认知过程, 其认知神经机制是当前研究的新方向。对已有研究进行分析发现：(1)归纳推理的核心过程与前额叶和晚期ERP成分密切相关; (2) 归纳推理可能存在双系统; (3)归纳推理过程中大脑偏侧化的现象存在争议。以上三个问题需要后续归纳推理的认知神经机制研究进行验证。     

Differential involvement of left prefrontal cortex in inductive and deductive reasoning

While inductive and deductive reasoning are considered distinct logical and psychological processes, little is known about their respective neural basis. To address this issue we scanned 16 subjects with fMRI, using an event-related design, while they engaged in inductive and deductive reasoning tasks. Both types of reasoning were characterized by activation of left lateral prefrontal and bilateral dorsal frontal, parietal, and occipital cortices. Neural responses unique to each type of reasoning determined from the Reasoning Type (deduction and induction) by Task (reasoning and baseline) interaction indicated greater involvement of left inferior frontal gyrus (BA 44) in deduction than induction, while left dorsolateral (BA 8/9) prefrontal gyrus showed greater activity during induction than deduction. This pattern suggests a dissociation within prefrontal cortex for deductive and inductive reasoning.     

图形型归纳推理的神经机制:一项fMRI研究

利用fMRI脑成像技术探讨图形型归纳推理的神经机制。设计了一种由图形形状和条纹方向描述的简单几何图形组成的归纳推理任务,这种图形型任务与以往研究中常用的语句型归纳推理任务是同质的。根据两个图形共享特征数量的不同设计了两种实验任务:共享两个特征(2T)和共享一个特征(1T),以休息基线(Rest)作为控制任务。2T和1T任务均为归纳推理任务,但2T任务包含知觉特征整合成分,而1T任务不包括。结果发现:与控制任务相比,归纳推理任务在前额区(BA6、9、11、46、47)、尾状核、壳核和丘脑等脑区有显著激活,反映了"前额皮层-纹状体-丘脑"通路在图形型归纳推理中的重要作用;图形型归纳推理中的知觉信息整合与右侧额下回(BA47)、双侧尾状核头部、壳核等脑区有关。     

工作记忆容量和加工速度在归纳推理能力老化中的作用

利用结构方程模型考察了工作记忆容量和加工速度在归纳推理老化中的作用。样本为217名社区老人。结果发现：(1)工作记忆容量在归纳推理老化中具有重要作用．语音环路和视空问初步加工系统在推理过程巾参与程度相当。(2)在年龄和归纳推理能力之问存在年龄——加工速度——工作记忆容量——归纳推理这样一条层级关系。年龄、加工速度和工作记忆容量共同解释归纳推理中57％的变异。     

归纳推理和演绎推理的关系理论及其模型

推理是人类高级认知过程的一种,相关的心理学研究一般将其分为归纳推理和演绎推理两个方面。归纳推理是从特殊到一般的推理过程,与之相对的演绎推理则是从一般到特殊的过程。归纳推理和演绎推理的关系问题是当前心理推理研究领域的一个重点问题。这一问题主要有两种理论解释：一种是单过程理论,该理论认为归纳推理和演绎推理本质上是同一个认知过程,以单过程理论为基础构建的推理模型称为单维模型;另一种是双过程理论,认为归纳推理和演绎推理是两个不同的认知过程,并不同程度地受到启发和分析过程的影响。未来研究可多关注推理的时间进程,以及采用不同的研究方法对各自理论提供数据支持。     

ERP characteristics of sentential inductive reasoning in time and frequency domains

Earlier studies have examined the issues of brain spatial localization in human sentential inductive reasoning using PET/fMRI. However, the temporal characteristics of such reasoning remain unclear. In our present study, we have used ERP (Event-related Potential) to further study human inductive reasoning involving sentential tasks. For congruent induction tasks, in which premises and conclusions are related, participants need to synthesize semantic information from the premises, conclusions, as well as background knowledge, while for incongruent induction tasks (baseline), in which premises and conclusions are unrelated, participants can respond “no” immediately. Behavioral data have been obtained that is consistent with expectations. ERPs imply that participants may integrate semantic information within the time window of 350–650 ms. Statistical analysis in the frequency domain has revealed a significant increase in the power of the gamma band (30–50 Hz) for congruent induction tasks in contrast to incongruent induction tasks.     

Neural control of voluntary eye closure: a case study and an fMRI investigation of blinking and winking

The current paper describes a rare case of a patient who suffered from unilateral apraxia of eye closure as a result of a bilateral stroke. Interestingly, the patient's ability to voluntarily close both eyelids (i.e. blinking) was not affected, indicating that different neural mechanisms control each type of eye closure. The stroke caused damage to a large part of the right frontal cortex, including the motor cortex, pre-motor cortex and the frontal eye field (FEF). The lesion in the left hemisphere was restricted to the FEF. In order to further study the neural mechanisms of eye closure, we conducted an fMRI study in a group of neurological healthy subjects. We found that all areas of the oculomotor cortex were activated by both left and right winking, including the FEF, supplementary eye field (SEF), and posterior parietal cortex (PPC). Blinking activated FEF and SEF, but not PPC. Both FEF and PPC were significantly more active during winking than blinking. Together, these results provide evidence for a critical role of the FEF in voluntary unilateral eye closure.     

利/害条件下归纳推理的心理效应分离

研究设计了两类包含内容的归纳推理任务, 一类是对获得收益的可能性的推理; 另一类是避免伤害的推理。实验显示, 不同内容的归纳推理结果有显著差异。其中, 避免伤害的归纳推理表现出将伤害可能过度推延的特点; 而获得收益的归纳推理则表现出对收益可能推延不足。此外, 不同的自我卷入水平——自我卷入式推理或者非自我卷入式推理——也会对推理产生显著影响。在避害条件下, 自我卷入式推理比非自我卷入式推理表现出更强烈的过度推延的特点; 在获利条件下, 自我卷入式推理比非自我卷入式推理表现出更严重的推延不足。研究经过分析提出, 这种差异可能暗示了归纳推理的领域特殊性特征。     

归纳推理中的属性中心性效应

通过三个实验研究了属性的中心性程度对归纳推理的影响,结果表明,在归纳推理中存在属性中心性效应,中心属性比其他属性（次中心属性、再次中心属性）更能影响归纳推理。但属性中心性效应的出现受到了前提对象和结论对象相似性程度的制约,当前提对象和结论对象的相似程度高时,中心属性比其他属性更能影响归纳推理;随着相似性水平的降低,中心属性的归纳推理力度越来越弱,而次中心属性、再次中心属性的归纳推理力度则会依次表现出越来越强的趋势,到最后当前提对象和结论对象的属性完全不相似时,最次中心属性的归纳推理力度达到最高水平,而中心属性的归纳推理力度则降低到最低水平。由于再次中心属性的归纳推理力度的最高水平没有显著高于随机水平,而中心属性的归纳推理力度的最低水平却显著低于随机水平,因此,研究者认为,在前提对象和结论对象完全不相似的情况下,被试将确信不能采用中心属性来进行归纳推理的力度判断,而采用猜测的方式选择了肯定可以排除的项目之外的其他项目,这体现了具有不确定的归纳推理活动的过程的典型特征     

类比推理的影响因素及脑生理基础研究

类比推理是不同于演绎,也不同于归纳的一种独立的推理形式。作为人类认知发展的中心能力之一,类比推理已逐渐成为当代认知研究的一个活跃领域。研究表明类比推理不仅受顺序、因果结构、上下文连贯性等项目特征的影响,并且与加工速度、工作记忆等其它认知能力有密切关系。有关类比推理的神经影像研究则主要发现大脑左半球前部和后部区域的参与,似可进一步从脑生理水平表明类比推理与工作记忆存在密切关系。     

Response-specific sources of dual-task interference in human pre-motor cortex

It is difficult to perform two tasks at the same time. Such performance limitations are exemplified by the psychological refractory period (PRP): when participants make distinct motor responses to two stimuli presented in rapid succession, the response to the second stimulus is increasingly slowed as the time interval between the two stimuli is decreased. This impairment is thought to reflect a central limitation in selecting the appropriate response to each stimulus, but not in perceptually encoding the stimuli. In the present study, it was sought to determine which brain regions are specifically involved in response selection under dual-task conditions by contrasting fMRI brain activity measured from a response selection manipulation that increased dual-task costs, with brain activity measured from an equally demanding manipulation that affected perceptual visibility. While a number of parieto-frontal areas involved in response selection were activated by both dual-task manipulations, the dorsal pre-motor cortex, and to a lesser extent the inferior frontal cortex, were specifically engaged by the response selection manipulation. These results suggest that the pre-motor cortex is an important neural locus of response selection limitation under dual-task situations.     

Strategy Use in Reasoning Training With Older Adults

The relationship between strategy use and cognitive training gains on reasoning ability is examined in a sample of 393 older participants in the Seattle Longitudinal Training Study. Pre- and posttest gains on the use of strategies specific to reasoning ability were compared for the elderly trained on reasoning versus spatial orientation ability. The present study involves an objective behavioral method of measuring strategy use on tests of inductive reasoning. Results showed that participants trained on reasoning significantly increased strategy use from pre- to posttest on two reasoning outcome measures compared to participants trained on spatial orientation. Higher strategy use by inductive reasoning trainees was also associated with greater training gain on reasoning outcome measures, suggesting strategy use as a possible mechanism of training gain. In addition, young–old participants and those with higher education, irrespective of training condition, exhibited greater pre- to posttest gain in strategy use.     

Cognitive and AI models of reasoning

Although relatively few in number, cognitive neuroscience studies of reasoning have two general implications for cognitive theories of deduction. First, an important distinction among these theories is whether they focus on the effect of personally relevant content on the processes and representations underlying deductive reasoning. Evidence is reviewed indicating that there is a neuroanatomical basis for both content-independent and content-dependent theories of deduction. Clinical and neuroimaging studies appear to show that content-independent reasoning is mediated by the left hemisphere, whereas content-dependent reasoning is mediated by regions in the right hemisphere and the bilateral ventromedial frontal cortex. In normal subjects, reasoning is likely to be based on contributions from both hemispheres. Second, clinical evidence indicates that the visuospatial processes used in deductive reasoning are mediated by the posterior areas of the left hemisphere, and that verbal and visuospatial reasoning representations overlap at the neuroanatomical level. This finding weighs against the claims of mental-model theory that deduction involves a significant nonverbal component. Further investigation, particularly with contemporary neuroimaging methods, is needed to test these preliminary conclusions.     

Metaphorical motion in mathematical reasoning: further evidence for pre-motor implementation of structure mapping in abstract domains

The theory of computation and category theory both employ arrow-based notations that suggest that the basic metaphor “state changes are like motions” plays a fundamental role in all mathematical reasoning involving formal manipulations. If this is correct, structure-mapping inferences implemented by the pre-motor action planning system can be expected to be involved in solving any mathematics problems not solvable by table lookups and number line manipulations alone. Available functional imaging studies of multi-digit arithmetic, algebra, geometry and calculus problem solving are consistent with this expectation.     

From symptoms to causes: Diversity effects in diagnostic reasoning

A single causal agent can often give rise to a cascade of consequences that can be envisioned as a branching pathway in which symptoms are the terminal nodes. In three studies, we investigated whether reasoning about root causes on the basis of such symptoms would conform to a diversity effect analogous to that found in inductive reasoning about properties of hierarchically organized categories. A strong diversity effect was found both for reasoning about medical diseases that drew on existing background knowledge and for reasoning that did not. Specifically, the presence of a root cause was more likely to be induced when the symptoms present were further apart in the branching structure.     

Explaining modulation of reasoning by belief

Although deductive reasoning is a closed system, one's beliefs about the world can influence validity judgements. To understand the associated functional neuroanatomy of this belief-bias we studied 14 volunteers using event-related fMRI, as they performed reasoning tasks under neutral, facilitatory and inhibitory belief conditions. We found evidence for the engagement of a left temporal lobe system during belief-based reasoning and a bilateral parietal lobe system during belief-neutral reasoning. Activation of right lateral prefrontal cortex was evident when subjects inhibited a prepotent response associated with belief-bias and correctly completed a logical task, a finding consistent with its putative role in cognitive monitoring. By contrast, when logical reasoning was overcome by belief-bias, there was engagement of ventral medial prefrontal cortex, a region implicated in affective processing. This latter involvement suggests that belief-bias effects in reasoning may be mediated through an influence of emotional processes on reasoning.     

Types of abduction in tool behavior

Tool-use behavior is currently one of the most intriguing and widely debated topics in cognitive neuroscience. Different accounts of our ability to use tools have been proposed. In the first part of the paper we review the most prominent interpretations and suggest that none of these accounts, considered in itself, is sufficient to explain tool use. In the second part of the paper we disentangle three different types of reasoning on tools, characterized by a different distribution of motor and cognitive ingredients. At the conceptual level, these types of reasoning reflect the distinction between three types of abductive inference as they are described in semiotic studies. At the functional level, we suggest that these types of reasoning on tools may correspond to different mental processes, possibly implemented in different regions of the left inferior parietal lobe. This proposal can account for the different interpretations commonly associated with the role of the left parietal cortex in tool use.     

非形式推理的研究及展望

非形式推理目前被界定为对结构不良的、用自然语言表述的、没有固定答案的、需要进行归纳的问题的推理,推理的结果是个体对问题形成一定的态度和观点。已有研究探讨了非形式推理的一般特征、衡量标准、影响推理的个体特征,以及学生非形式推理能力的培养方式等问题。作者认为开展非形式推理及其影响因素的研究将促进人格特征与认知关系的研究,并有广泛的教育意义,同时提出了有待深入研究的课题。     

A taxonomy of inductive problems

Inductive inferences about objects, features, categories, and relations have been studied for many years, but there are few attempts to chart the range of inductive problems that humans are able to solve. We present a taxonomy of inductive problems that helps to clarify the relationships between familiar inductive problems such as generalization, categorization, and identification, and that introduces new inductive problems for psychological investigation. Our taxonomy is founded on the idea that semantic knowledge is organized into systems of objects, features, categories, and relations, and we attempt to characterize all of the inductive problems that can arise when these systems are partially observed. Recent studies have begun to address some of the new problems in our taxonomy, and future work should aim to develop unified theories of inductive reasoning that explain how people solve all of the problems in the taxonomy.     

特征相似性、类别标签与因果关系在归纳推理中的作用

采用人工材料,比较类别标签、特征相似性与因果关系对归纳推理强度的影响。包括两个实验,实验1比较类别标签与特征相似性对归纳推理的影响,结果表明,当类别标签对归纳推理的影响显著强于特征相似性时,不能将类别标签等同于一个相似性特征。实验2进一步探讨类别标签与因果关系对归纳推理的作用,结果表明,因果关系作用明显强于类别标签的作用。综合两个实验的结果并整合前人相关研究,提出了不同关系影响归纳推理的强度假想。