How to reason without words: inference as categorization.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Science
• Animal Cognition
• Philosophy of Mind

Background:

• The concept of reasoning as uniquely human is ancient but debated.
• Denial of animal reasoning often stems from language-centric views of inference.
• Some animal performances in tasks like transitive inference challenge anthropocentric views.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a new account of reasoning based on subsymbolic processes.
• To argue that these processes underpin inference even in humans.
• To explore the implications for nonhuman animal cognition and inference capabilities.

Main Methods:

• Building on Vigo's modal similarity theory.
• Focusing on core subsymbolic processes: similarity assessment, discrimination, and categorization.
• Applying the proposed account to explain transitive inference in animals.

Main Results:

• Reasoning is argued to depend on subsymbolic similarity assessment, discrimination, and categorization.
• Premise-based inference is proposed to operate via these subsymbolic processes in humans.
• Nonhuman animals with robust discrimination and categorization abilities may perform simple inferences.

Conclusions:

• The proposed subsymbolic account offers a framework for understanding reasoning across species.
• It challenges the necessity of language for certain forms of inference.
• This perspective supports the view that some nonhuman animals are capable of simple inference, including transitive inference.