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Rational thinking and cognitive sophistication: development, cognitive abilities, and thinking dispositions
Maggie E Toplak1, Richard F West2, Keith E Stanovich3
1Department of Psychology, York University.
Developmental Psychology
|November 6, 2013
Summary
Rational thinking skills, including belief bias and base rate sensitivity, improve with age and cognitive sophistication. These reasoning abilities consistently develop alongside cognitive ability and thinking dispositions.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
- Decision Science
Background:
- Rational thinking is crucial for effective decision-making.
- Understanding developmental trends in reasoning is key to cognitive science.
- Previous research has identified various biases in human judgment.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate developmental trends in five key rational thinking tasks.
- To examine the relationship between reasoning skills and cognitive sophistication.
- To explore how age, cognitive ability, and thinking dispositions influence rational thought.
Main Methods:
- Assessed five reasoning tasks: denominator neglect, belief bias, base rate sensitivity, resistance to framing, and otherside thinking.
- Measured cognitive sophistication using age, cognitive ability (intelligence, executive functioning), and thinking dispositions (actively open-minded thinking, superstitious thinking, need for cognition).
Main Results:
- All five reasoning tasks showed consistent relationships with cognitive sophistication.
- Developmental trends in rational thinking were observed across all measured domains.
- Cognitive ability and thinking dispositions were significant predictors of reasoning performance.
Conclusions:
- Rational thinking skills develop in conjunction with overall cognitive sophistication.
- Age, cognitive ability, and thinking dispositions are important factors in the development of rational thought.
- Findings inform taxonomies of developmental trends in rational thinking.
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