Editing Reason (section)

===Psychology and cognitive science===
{{See also|Psychology of reasoning}}
Scientific research into reasoning is carried out within the fields of [[psychology]] and [[cognitive science]]. Psychologists attempt to determine whether or not people are capable of rational thought in a number of different circumstances.

Assessing how well someone engages in reasoning is the project of determining the extent to which the person is [[Rationality|rational]] or acts rationally. It is a key research question in the [[psychology of reasoning]] and cognitive science of reasoning. [[Rationality]] is often divided into its respective [[Rationality#Theoretical and practical|theoretical and practical counterparts]].

====Behavioral experiments on human reasoning====
Experimental cognitive psychologists research reasoning behaviour. Such research may focus, for example, on how people perform on tests of reasoning such as [[Intelligence tests|intelligence]] or [[IQ]] tests, or on how well people's reasoning matches ideals set by logic (see, for example, the [[Wason test]]).<ref>{{cite book|last=Manktelow|first=K.I.|year=1999|title=Reasoning and Thinking (Cognitive Psychology: Modular Course)|location=Hove, Sussex|publisher=Psychology Press}}</ref> Experiments examine how people make inferences from conditionals like ''if A then B'' and how they make inferences about alternatives like ''A or else B''.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Johnson-Laird|first1=P.N.|last2=Byrne|first2=R.M.J.|year=1991|title=Deduction|location=Hillsdale|publisher=Erlbaum}}</ref> They test whether people can make valid deductions about spatial and temporal relations like ''A is to the left of B'' or ''A happens after B'', and about quantified assertions like ''all the A are B''.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Johnson-Laird|first1=P.N.|year=2006|title=How we reason|location=Oxford|publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref> Experiments investigate how people make inferences about factual situations, hypothetical possibilities, probabilities, and [[counterfactual thinking|counterfactual]] situations.<ref>{{cite book|last=Byrne|first=R.M.J.|year=2005|title=The Rational Imagination: How People Create Counterfactual Alternatives to Reality|location=Cambridge, Mass.|publisher=MIT Press}}</ref>

====Developmental studies of children's reasoning====
Developmental psychologists investigate the development of reasoning from birth to adulthood. Piaget's [[theory of cognitive development]] was the first complete theory of reasoning development. Subsequently, several alternative theories were proposed, including the [[neo-Piagetian theories of cognitive development]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Demetriou|first=A.|year=1998|chapter=Cognitive development|editor-first1=A.|editor-last1=Demetriou|editor-first2=W.|editor-last2=Doise|editor-first3=K.F.M.|editor-last3=van Lieshout|title=Life-span developmental psychology|pages=179–269|location=London|publisher=Wiley}}</ref>

====Neuroscience of reasoning====
{{citation needed section|date=September 2023}}
The biological functioning of the brain is studied by [[neurophysiologist]]s, [[Cognitive neuroscience|cognitive neuroscientists]], and [[neuropsychologist]]s. This includes research into the structure and function of normally functioning brains, as well as of damaged or otherwise unusual brains. In addition to carrying out research into reasoning, some psychologists—for example [[clinical psychologist]]s and [[psychotherapists]]—work to alter people's reasoning habits when those habits are unhelpful.