Social reasoning and spatial paralogic

Analysis of S's performance on linear syllogisms and of their assignment of spatial directions to nonspatial ordering relations led to the conclusion that thinking about abstract orderings depends on the construction of spatial representations. In making these constructions, people proceed more readily in a downward than in an upward direction, and in a rightward than in a leftward direction. They also end-anchor. These principles account for the results of otherwise inexplicable variation in difficulty among linear syllogisms. Some ordering relations ("better" and "worse") have a fixed tie to a vertical axis in people's cognitive space, whereas other relations ("lighter" and "darker") are not so tied. Detailed consequences of such differences were predicted and observed in reasoning tasks. Implications for social cognition were discussed, particularly concerning the previously observed predilection for single orderings and the indications that the linear ordering is a preeminent cognitive good figure. (20 ref.)