The mental possible worlds mechanism and the lobster problem: an analysis of a complex GRE logical reasoning task

Abstract

An attempt is made to provide a new psychological mechanism, the mental possible worlds mechanism (MPWM), for analysing complex reasoning tasks such as the logical reasoning tasks in the Graduate Record Examination (GRE). MPWM captures the interaction between syntactic and semantic processes in reasoning, and so it also technically supports the new mental metalogic theory which studies the bridging relations between two major competing theories in the field, mental logic and mental models, whose accounts are also discussed. An empirical study of MPWM is also given.

Keywords:

• Graduate Record Examination
• Mental possible worlds mechanism
• Logical reasoning
• Lobster problem
• Syntactic process
• Semantic process
• Mental metalogic theory

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Phil Johnson-Laird for his valuable comments and criticisms regarding Mental Metalogic and the associated MPWM. This project was supported by a grant from the GRE Board and Educational Testing Service (Princeton, NJ).