Understanding Psychology (10th Ed)

 SYLLOGISTIC REASONING: THE FORMAL RULES OF LOGIC 
If you’ve ever played a card game like poker and tried to fi gure out what cards your 
opponent was holding, you probably used  syllogistic reasoning,  a kind of formal 
reasoning in which a person draws a conclusion from a set of assumptions. In using 
syllogistic reasoning, we begin with a general assumption that we believe is true and 
then derive specifi c implications from that assumption. If the assumption is true, the 
conclusions must also be true (Fisk & Sharp, 2002; Marrero & Gamez, 2004; Shynkaruk 
& Thompson, 2006).
syllogistic reasoning
Formal reason-
ing in which people draw a conclusion 
from a set of assumptions.
FIGURE 3 
Prototypes are typical, highly representative examples of a concept. For instance, 
a highly typical prototype of the concept “furniture” is a chair, whereas a stove is not a good 
prototype. High agreement exists within a culture about which examples of a concept are 
prototypes. 
(Source: Adapted from Rosch & Mervis, 1975.)
Concept 
Category
Ranking of Prototype
Furniture Vehicle Weapon Vegetable
1—Most Typical 
Chair 
Car 
Gun 
Peas
2 
Sofa 
Truck 
Knife 
Carrots
3 
Table 
Bus 
Sword 
String beans
4 
Dresser 
Motorcycle 
Bomb 
Spinach
5 
Desk 
Train 
Hand grenade 
Broccoli
6 
Bed 
Trolley car 
Spear 
Asparagus
7 
Bookcase 
Bicycle 
Cannon 
Corn
8
Footstool 
Airplane 
Bow and arrow Cauliflower
9 
Lamp 
Boat 
Club 
Brussels sprouts
10 Piano 
Tractor 
Tank 
Lettuce
11 Cushion 
Cart 
Tear 
gas 
Beets
12 Mirror 
Wheelchair 
Whip 
Tomato
13 Rug 
Tank 
Ice 
pick 
Lima 
beans
14 Radio 
Raft 
Fists 
Eggplant
15—Least Typical 
Stove 
Sled 
Rocket 
Onion
Study Alert
Figure 3 will help you 
remember that prototypes 
represent “best” or most 
common examples of a