Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 6, 2026

The Adventures of Fundi Intervention Based on the Cognitive and Emotional Processing in Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder Patients
Published on: June 12, 2020
The cognition and neuroscience of relational reasoning
1Center for BrainHealth®, The University of Texas at Dallas, 2200 Mockingbird Lane, Dallas, TX 75235, USA. daniel.krawczyk@utdallas.edu
Abstract:
There has been a growing interest in understanding the complex cognitive processes that give rise to human reasoning. This review focuses on the cognitive and neural characteristics of relational reasoning and analogy performance. Initially relational reasoning studies that have investigated the neural basis of abstract reasoning with an emphasis on the prefrontal cortex are described. Next studies of analogical reasoning are reviewed with insights from neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies. Additionally, studies of cognitive components in analogical reasoning are described. This review draws together insights from numerous studies and concludes that prefrontal areas exhibit domain independence in relational reasoning, while posterior areas within the temporal, parietal, and occipital lobes show evidence of domain dependence in reasoning. Lastly, future directions in the study of relational reasoning are discussed.
Related Concept Videos
Reason and Intuition
Reasoning
Inductive reasoning involves deriving generalizations from specific observations. This type of reasoning helps form beliefs about the world. For example,...
Cognitivism
Previously dominated by behaviorism, which prioritized observable behaviors and largely ignored mental processes, psychology transformed in the 1950s. Cognitive psychologists argue that understanding how we think and process information is...
Introduction to Cognitive Psychology
This field emerged in the mid-20th century, following a period dominated by behaviorism, which...
Causes of Social Behavior II: Cognitive Processes
Deductive Reasoning

