Higher-order Reasoning Research Articles

Emotion information processing as a new component of emotional intelligence: Theoretical framework and empirical evidence

The relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and emotion information processing (EIP) has received surprisingly little attention in the literature. The present research addresses these gaps in the literature by introducing a conceptualization of emotional intelligence as composed of two distinct components: (1) EIK or emotion Knowledge component, captured by current ability emotional intelligence tests, related to top-down, higher order reasoning about emotions, and which depends more strongly on acquired and culture-bound knowledge about emotions; (2) EIP or emotion information Processing component, measured with emotion information processing tasks, requires faster processing and is based on bottom-up attention-related responses to emotion information. In Study 1 ( N = 349) we tested the factorial structure of this new EIP component within the nomological network of intelligence and current ability emotional intelligence. In Study 2 ( N =111) we tested the incremental validity of EIP in predicting both overall performance and the charisma of a presenter while presenting in a stressful situation. Results support the importance of acknowledging the role of emotion information processing in the emotional intelligence literature and point to the utility of introducing a new EI measure that would capture stable individual differences in how individuals process emotion information.

Changes in higher-order mentalizing reasoning in the elderly

Changes in higher-order mentalizing reasoning in the elderly

More Rope Tricks Reveal Why More Task Variants Will Never Lead to Strong Inferences About Higher-Order Causal Reasoning in Chimpanzees

More Rope Tricks Reveal Why More Task Variants Will Never Lead to Strong Inferences About Higher-Order Causal Reasoning in Chimpanzees

The critically thinking employee: employers' point of view

Critical thinking is one of the most significant skills and abilities, which have direct impact on individual success and society’s welfare. Especially loud is the voice of employers drawing attention to the need for critical thinking skills in the labour market and in a rapidly changing world in general. The World Economic Forum (2018) indicated the ten most wanted and needed skills in the labour market of 2020: critical thinking was placed at number two, following problem solving at number one. The American Management Association (AMA) Critical Skills Survey (2010, 2012) revealed that, according to employers, employees need to think critically, solve problems, innovate, collaborate, and communicate more effectively – they must excel at the “four Cs”: critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity. The goal of this article is to find out what and how employers with different managerial experience see critically thinking employees in today’s labour market. The research is based on phenomenography methodology and is the first such type of research about critical thinking in Lithuania. The phenomenography study revealed three hierarchically interconnected categories: A- decision to act here and now; B- verified and assured decision to act. C- innovative decisions for operational improvement. Empirical data allows identifying critical thinking related expectations of employers who anticipate that their employees could deal with emerging situations and are able to reason chosen decisions. Employers state that the critically thinking employee could give innovative suggestions; research participants describe critical thinking as higher order reasoning which gives added value to an organisation. Such understanding reflects the definition of critical thinking as a cognitive endeavour, directed to functionality in making decisions and solving particular problems. Employees’ critical thinking manifests at personal, interpersonal and societal levels.

Dynamic term-modal logics for first-order epistemic planning

Many classical planning frameworks are built on first-order languages. The first-order expressive power is desirable for compactly representing actions via schemas, and for specifying quantified conditions such as ¬∃xblocks_door(x). In contrast, several recent epistemic planning frameworks are built on propositional epistemic logic. The epistemic language is useful to describe planning problems involving higher-order reasoning or epistemic goals such as Ka¬problem.This paper develops a first-order version of Dynamic Epistemic Logic (DEL). In this framework, for example, ∃xKx∃yblocks_door(y) is a formula. The formalism combines the strengths of DEL (higher-order reasoning) with those of first-order logic (lifted representation) to model multi-agent epistemic planning. The paper introduces an epistemic language with a possible-worlds semantics, followed by novel dynamics given by first-order action models and their execution via product updates. Taking advantage of the first-order machinery, epistemic action schemas are defined to provide compact, problem-independent domain descriptions, in the spirit of PDDL.Concerning metatheory, the paper defines axiomatic normal term-modal logics, shows a Canonical Model Theorem-like result which allows establishing completeness through frame characterization formulas, shows decidability for the finite agent case, and shows a general completeness result for the dynamic extension by reduction axioms.

From Traditional to Practical: A Twist Using Inquiry Based Instruction in ESL Learning

Continuing professional development is an indispensable mechanism for deepening teachers’ knowledge about content and developing teaching practices. Teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) through Inquiry Based Instruction (IBI) is a program designed as a set of experiential learning where teachers have opportunities to integrate, reflect upon and develop their inquiry teaching performance (Alper, 2018). Inquiry is a multifaceted, student-centered, collaborative, constructivist activity aimed at improving students’ higher-order reasoning. It could be described as hands-on, problem-based, project-based as well as deductive and inductive approaches in teaching ESL. The researcher surveyed students using a modified questionnaire not only on the opportunity given to students to inquire and the frequency of their asking of questions but also the kinds and types of questions the teachers asked in the academic set-up. Using discourse analysis too, the researcher was able to examine the ways in which language was used, in the study, the teachers’ questions, in the real situation, the classroom. The investigated data revealed merged linguistics and sociology by taking into account the social and cultural context language was used to better understand an aspect in communication. Highlight of the study was to assess the possible twist of instruction from traditional to inquiry-based approach in ESL learning, where students inquire instead of the teachers asking questions.

Recursively modeling other agents for decision making: A research perspective

Individuals exhibit theory of mind, attributing beliefs, intent, and mental states to others as explanations of observed actions. Dennett's intentional stance offers an analogous abstraction for computational agents seeking to understand, explain, or predict others' behaviors. These recognized theories provide a formal basis to ongoing investigations of recursive modeling. We review and situate various frameworks for recursive modeling that have been studied in game- and decision- theories, and have yielded methods useful to AI researchers. Sustained attention given to these frameworks has produced new analyses and methods with an aim toward making recursive modeling practicable.Indeed, we also review some emerging uses and the insights these yielded, which are indicative of pragmatic progress in this area. The significance of these frameworks is that higher-order reasoning is critical to correctly recognizing others' intent or outthinking opponents. Such reasoning has been utilized in academic, business, military, security, and other contexts both to train and inform decision-making agents in organizational and strategic contexts, and also to more realistically predict and best respond to other agents' intent.

Extensional Paramodulation for Higher-Order Logic and Its Effective Implementation Leo-III

Automation of classical higher-order logic faces various theoretical and practical challenges. On a theoretical level, powerful calculi for effective equality reasoning from first-order theorem proving cannot be lifted to the higher-order domain in a simple manner. Practically, implementations of higher-order reasoning systems have to incorporate procedures that often have high time complexity or are not decidable in general. In my dissertation, both the theoretical and the practical challenges of designing an effective higher-order reasoning system are studied. The resulting system, the automated theorem prover Leo-III, is one of the most effective and versatile systems, in terms of supported logical formalisms, to date.

Distinctions between primary and secondary scalar implicatures

Abstract An utterance of Some of the students are home usually triggers the inference that it is not the case that the speaker believes that all students are home (Primary Scalar Implicature). It may also license a stronger inference: that the speaker believes that not all students are home (Secondary Scalar Implicature). Using an experimental paradigm which allows to distinguish between these three distinct readings as such (literal reading, primary SI, secondary SI), we show that the secondary SI can be accessed even in contexts where the speaker is not presented as being well-informed, a result which goes against classical neo-Gricean pragmatic approaches to Scalar Implicature, but is compatible with both the ‘grammatical’ approach to Scalar Implicatures and some more recent game-theoretic pragmatic models in which speakers and listeners engage in sophisticated higher-order reasoning about each other. Second, we use this paradigm to compare standard scalar items such as some and expressions whose interpretation has been argued to involve SIs, but controversially: almost, numerals and plural morphology. For some and almost, we find that speakers do access three distinct readings, but for numerals and plural morphology, only the literal reading and the secondary implicature could be detected, and no primary implicature, which suggests that the pragmatic and semantic mechanisms at play are different for both types of items.

Higher-order theorem proving and its applications

Abstract Automated theorem proving systems validate or refute whether a conjecture is a logical consequence of a given set of assumptions. Higher-order provers have been successfully applied in academic and industrial applications, such as planning, software and hardware verification, or knowledge-based systems. Recent studies moreover suggest that automation of higher-order logic, in particular, yields effective means for reasoning within expressive non-classical logics, enabling a whole new range of applications, including computer-assisted formal analysis of arguments in metaphysics. My work focuses on the theoretical foundations, effective implementation and practical application of higher-order theorem proving systems. This article briefly introduces higher-order reasoning in general and presents an overview of the design and implementation of the higher-order theorem prover Leo-III. In the second part, some example applications of Leo-III are discussed.

Event-related neural oscillation changes following reasoning training in individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairment

Emerging evidence suggests cognitive training programs targeting higher-order reasoning may strengthen not only cognitive, but also neural functions in individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). However, research on direct measures of training-induced neural changes, derivable from electroencephalography (EEG), is limited. The current pilot study examined effects of Gist Reasoning training (n = 16) compared to New Learning training (n = 16) in older adults with amnestic MCI on measures of event-related neural oscillations (theta and alpha band power) corresponding to Go/NoGo tasks during basic and superordinate semantic categorization. EEG data were recorded while participants performed the Go/NoGo task pre- and post-training, and power in theta and alpha frequency bands was examined. Both groups were comparable at pre-training on all measures and both groups showed greater event-related theta synchronization post-training. Furthermore, the Gist Reasoning group had enhanced event-related desynchronization in low-frequency alpha band (8–10 Hz) on response inhibition (NoGo) trials and high-frequency alpha band (11–13 Hz) on response execution (Go) trials during superordinate categorization, relative to the New Learning group. These findings suggest that Gist Reasoning training in MCI impacted neural processing linked to strategic processing of Go and NoGo trials during the more complex superordinate categorization task. Targeting higher-order top-down cognitive processing seems to better harness residual neuroplastic potential in MCI.ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT02588209.

Meta-analytic techniques reveal that corvid causal reasoning in theAesop's Fable paradigm is driven by trial-and-error learning.

The classic Aesop's fable, Crow and the Pitcher, has inspired a major line of research in comparative cognition. Over the past several years, five articles (over 32 experiments) have examined the ability of corvids (e.g., rooks, crows, and jays) to complete lab-based analogs of this fable, by requiring them to drop stonesand other objects into tubes of water to retrieve a floating worm (Bird and Emery in Curr Biol 19:1-5, 2009b; Cheke et al. in Anim Cogn 14:441-455, 2011; Jelbert et al. in PLoS One 3:e92895, 2014; Logan et al. in PLoS One 7:e103049, 2014; Taylor et al. in Gray R D 12:e26887, 2011). These researchers have stressed the unique potential of this paradigm for understanding causal reasoning in corvids. Ghirlanda and Lind (Anim Behav 123:239-247, 2017) re-evaluated trial-level data from these studies and concluded that initial preferences for functional objects, combined with trial-and-error learning, may account for subjects' performance on key variants of the paradigm. In the present paper, we use meta-analytic techniques to provide more precise information about the rate and mode of learning that occurs within and across tasks. Within tasks, subjects learned from successful (but not unsuccessful) actions, indicating that higher-order reasoning about phenomena such as mass, volume, and displacement is unlikely to be involved. Furthermore, subjects did not transfer information learned in one task to subsequent tasks, suggesting that corvids do not engage with these tasks as variants of the same problem (i.e., how to generate water displacement to retrieve a floating worm). Our methodological analysis and empirical findings raise the question: Can Aesop's fable studies distinguish between trial-and-error learning and/or higher-order causal reasoning? We conclude they cannot.

The Deweyan Approach to Learning Victim Advocacy: Seeing Beyond Stigmas and Facilitating Second Chances

Fundamentally, criminal justice practitioners are public safety promoters, yet safety can be compromised if a divide exists between them and the communities they serve. The best way to train future criminal justice practitioners may be found in the progressive education proposed by John Dewey in the early 20th-century. Dewey’s experiential approach, specifically service-learning, has gained traction as an effective teaching tool for broadening perspectives, deepening understanding of diverse populations, and fostering higher order reasoning, all of which are critical characteristics for criminal justice professionals as well as for all American citizens. Undergraduate students participated in service-learning during a semester-long honors course on victim advocacy, and this qualitative study used a phenomenological approach to explore whether their lived experiences, as revealed in reflective responses to open-ended questions, effectuated learning. Findings were that service-learning involvement generated community commitment and instilled a deeper sense of civic responsibility, both of which have the potential to better promote public safety.

Evaluation of Critical Thinking Skills in the Anatomy and Development Components of the First Year Medical School Curriculum

IntroductionEnsuring that medical students are challenged with critical thinking problems and can solve them successfully is important to their development as future physicians. Multiple‐choice questions (MCQs), if written correctly, can promote the development of these critical thinking skills. Bloom's taxonomy is a framework used to classify cognitive skills into increasingly complex levels of learning (Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate, and Create). Adapted versions of Bloom's taxonomy have been used to categorize MCQs into lower order, non‐critical thinking questions and higher‐order, critical thinking questions.Purpose and HypothesisThe purpose of this study was to evaluate the distribution of Gross Anatomy and Development MCQs categorized as either non‐critical thinking questions (Remember or Understand) or critical thinking questions (Apply/Analyze) and analyze student performance on those questions. We hypothesized that students would perform better on non‐critical thinking MCQs compared to critical thinking MCQs.MethodsAt the Medical College of Georgia, the first year medical curriculum consists of systems‐based modular blocks composed of basic science components including Gross Anatomy and Development. Academic performance is measured primarily from MCQ exams for each module. Gross Anatomy and Development MCQs (n=260) from the 2016–2017 academic year were evaluated and sorted into Remember, Understand, or Apply/Analyze categories by four evaluators. Interrater reliability was calculated using Krippendorff's α (α=0.54). Student academic performance (n=192 students) on categorized MCQs was analyzed and compared using a one‐way ANOVA and Tukey's post‐hoc analysis.ResultsOf the 151 Anatomy questions, 20.5% were categorized as Remember, 51% as Understand, and 28.5% as Apply/Analyze. Students scored similarly on all three categories of Anatomy MCQs (Remember: 77.3% ± 18%; Understand: 82.3% ± 13%; Apply/Analyze: 78.7% ± 16%; p=0.202). Of the 109 Development questions, 33% were categorized as Remember, 39.4% as Understand, and 27.5% as Apply/Analyze. Students performed significantly better on Development MCQs categorized as Understand compared to Remember (81.1% ± 11.5% vs. 72.4% ± 15.5%; p=0.015). There was no difference between Understand and Apply/Analyze MCQs (74.6% ± 13.2%; p=0.109) or Remember and Apply/Analyze MCQs (p=0.799).ConclusionStudents performed similarly across all categories of Anatomy MCQs. However, for Development, students performed significantly better on Understand MCQs compared to Remember MCQs. Though Remember questions are one‐step and straightforward, they may be difficult if they involve specific isolated facts, unlike broader concepts tested by Understand questions. Apply/Analyze questions involve multiple steps or require students to connect several pieces of information to conclude the correct answer, which may make them more difficult for students. Overall, fewer MCQs were categorized as critical thinking than expected, as it was initially thought that the majority of MCQs in the curriculum would involve higher‐order reasoning skills. However, classification of MCQs by evaluators was challenging because students may approach questions differently based on prior knowledge and study resources used. This study identified opportunities to improve assessments by incorporating more MCQs that test higher order critical thinking skills.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.

EkSTEMiT Learning Module and Inculcation of Inventive Thinking

The young generation of today must be prepared with the knowledge and skills necessary to be able to compete globally thus boosting economic growth and prosperity. Therefore, students should not only be equipped with knowledge but they are in need of the “21st century skills”, which is the top priority and one of the main education agenda goals today. As one of the domains in the 21st century skills, inventive thinking includes elements of flexibility, self-regulation, curiosity, creativity, risk taking, higher order thinking and reasoning. In order to inculcate inventive thinking for students, the EkSTEMiT Learning Module was developed for the topic Electrochemistry; one of the most difficult topics to learn among students. EkSTEMiT Learning Module was developed based on the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) integrated model. Thus, this paper will discuss the conceptual framework underlying the development of EkSTEMiT Learning Module with descriptions of learning activities designed for Electrochemistry.

Learning to argue via apprenticeship

We examined apprenticeship, in the form of interaction with a more capable other, as a mechanism of development of higher-order reasoning skills, specifically argumentation. Over a 1-year period, middle school students engaged in twice-weekly electronic dialogs with a sequence of different peers on a series of social issues. In one group, unbeknownst to participants, a highly capable adult substituted for peers in half of their dialogs. Beginning immediately, increasing with time, and extending to peer-only dialogs on a new topic, the quality of argumentation shown by the experimental group exceeded that of a comparison peer-only group, highlighting the power of apprenticeship as a mechanism in the development of reasoning, a demonstration of both theoretical and applied significance.

Verifying Custom Synchronization Constructs Using Higher-Order Separation Logic

Synchronization constructs lie at the heart of any reliable concurrent program. Many such constructs are standard (e.g., locks, queues, stacks, and hash-tables). However, many concurrent applications require custom synchronization constructs with special-purpose behavior. These constructs present a significant challenge for verification. Like standard constructs, they rely on subtle racy behavior, but unlike standard constructs, they may not have well-understood abstract interfaces. As they are custom built, such constructs are also far more likely to be unreliable. This article examines the formal specification and verification of custom synchronization constructs. Our target is a library of channels used in automated parallelization to enforce sequential behavior between program statements. Our high-level specification captures the conditions necessary for correct execution; these conditions reflect program dependencies necessary to ensure sequential behavior. We connect the high-level specification with the low-level library implementation to prove that a client’s requirements are satisfied. Significantly, we can reason about program and library correctness without breaking abstraction boundaries. To achieve this, we use a program logic called iCAP (impredicative Concurrent Abstract Predicates) based on separation logic. iCAP supports both high-level abstraction and low-level reasoning about races. We use this to show that our high-level channel specification abstracts three different, increasingly complex low-level implementations of the library. iCAP’s support for higher-order reasoning lets us prove that sequential dependencies are respected, while iCAP’s next-generation semantic model lets us avoid ugly problems with cyclic dependencies.

Application of Cognitive Apprenticeship model (CA) to library instruction

ABSTRACTThe cognitive apprenticeship model, which links apprenticeship learning techniques and classroom practices, offers a flexible framework for planning and implementing library sessions. Originally developed by educators Collins, Brown, and Newman, cognitive apprenticeship illuminates the thought process of teachers and other experts while they deliver instruction in problem solving, close reading, critical thinking, or other higher-order reasoning. This article discusses how librarians can employ the cognitive apprenticeship model to collapse the thought process associated with library research into components that are comprehensible to all levels of students.

A non-probabilist principle of higher-order reasoning

The author uses a series of examples to illustrate two versions of a new, nonprobabilist principle of epistemic rationality, the special and general versions of the metacognitive, expected relative frequency (MERF) principle. These are used to explain the rationality of revisions to an agent’s degrees of confidence in propositions based on evidence of the reliability or unreliability of the cognitive processes responsible for them—especially reductions in confidence assignments to propositions antecedently regarded as certain—including certainty-reductions to instances of the law of excluded middle or the law of noncontradiction in logic or certainty-reductions to the certainties of probabilist epistemology. The author proposes special and general versions of the MERF principle and uses them to explain the examples, including the reasoning that would lead to thoroughgoing fallibilism—that is, to a state of being certain of nothing (not even the MERF principle itself). The author responds to the main defenses of probabilism: Dutch Book arguments, Joyce’s potential accuracy defense, and the potential calibration defenses of Shimony and van Fraassen by showing that, even though they do not satisfy the probability axioms, degrees of belief that satisfy the MERF principle minimize expected inaccuracy in Joyce’s sense; they can be externally calibrated in Shimony and van Fraassen’s sense; and they can serve as a basis for rational betting, unlike probabilist degrees of belief, which, in many cases, human beings have no rational way of ascertaining. The author also uses the MERF principle to subsume the various epistemic akrasia principles in the literature. Finally, the author responds to Titelbaum’s argument that epistemic akrasia principles require that we be certain of some epistemological beliefs, if we are rational.

TeleCognitive Training in Adults with Traumatic Brain Injury

To examine feasibility of a telehealth approach of a proven higher-order reasoning training (labeled Strategic Memory Advanced Reasoning Training, SMART) in adults with TBI. The SMART program teaches reasoning strategies of strategic attention, integrated reasoning and innovation to improve efficiency and performance in various aspects of daily life.