Reasoning and Problem-Solving

Scope: Deductive, inductive, causal, analogical, mathematical reasoning; hypothesis testing; categorization; insight; means-ends analysis; planning; subgoaling.

Out of scope: “Reasoning” as umbrella; “logical reasoning” as umbrella over deductive + inductive; fluid intelligence as an individual-difference construct.

Four problem-solving rows added during 2026-04-15: Insight, Means-ends analysis, Planning, Subgoaling. (hed_planning had been accidentally duplicated in process_list.md and was de-duplicated on 2026-04-17.) hed_logical_reasoning dropped 2026-04-19 — umbrella over deductive + inductive; alias added to hed_deductive_reasoning. :::

This category contains 11 processes.

Analogical reasoning

Process ID: hed_analogical_reasoning

Mapping of relational structure from a source domain to a target domain.

Tasks

The following tasks engage this process:

Fundamental references

  • Gentner (1983) Cognitive Science 7:155–170

Categorization

Process ID: hed_categorization

Assignment of instances to categories according to their features.

Tasks

The following tasks engage this process:

Fundamental references

  • Rosch (1973) Cognitive Psychology 4:328–350

Recent references

  • Seger & Miller (2010) Annual Review of Neuroscience 33:203–219

Causal reasoning

Process ID: hed_causal_reasoning

Inference about cause–effect relations from observation and intervention.

Tasks

The following tasks engage this process:

Fundamental references

  • Cheng (1997) Psychological Review 104:367–405

Deductive reasoning

Process ID: hed_deductive_reasoning

Also known as: Logical reasoning — Broader term encompassing deductive and inductive forms; dropped as separate entry 2026-04-18 because its definition was explicitly a union of the two. Wason Selection Task link reassigned here.

Inference in which the conclusion follows necessarily from the premises.

Tasks

The following tasks engage this process:

Fundamental references

  • Wason (1968) Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 20:273–281

Recent references

  • Goel (2007) Trends in Cognitive Sciences 11:435–441

Hypothesis testing

Process ID: hed_hypothesis_testing

Generation and evaluation of alternative explanations against evidence.

Tasks

The following tasks engage this process:

Recent references

  • Klayman (1995) Psychology of Learning and Motivation 32:385–418

Inductive reasoning

Process ID: hed_inductive_reasoning

Inference from specific instances to general principles; probabilistic rather than necessary.

Tasks

The following tasks engage this process:

Fundamental references

  • Rips (1975) Cognitive Psychology 7:665–681

Recent references

  • Kemp & Tenenbaum (2009) Psychological Review 116:20–58

Insight

Process ID: hed_insight

Sudden restructuring of a problem representation yielding a solution that was previously unavailable, often accompanied by an “Aha!” experience distinct from incremental analytic search.

Tasks

The following tasks engage this process:

Fundamental references

  • Metcalfe J & Wiebe D (1987) Memory & Cognition 15:238-246

Recent references

  • Bowden EM & Jung-Beeman M (2003) Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 10:730-737

  • Kounios J & Beeman M (2014) Annual Review of Psychology 65:71-93

Mathematical reasoning

Process ID: hed_mathematical_reasoning

Manipulation of numerical and algebraic quantities and relations.

No tasks in the current catalog are linked to this process.

Fundamental references

  • Dehaene (1997) The Number Sense

Recent references

  • Amalric & Dehaene (2016) PNAS 113:4909–4917

Means-ends analysis

Process ID: hed_means_ends_analysis

Iterative problem-solving strategy in which the distance between the current state and the goal state is reduced by selecting operators that diminish the largest remaining difference.

Tasks

The following tasks engage this process:

Fundamental references

  • Newell A & Simon HA (1972) Human Problem Solving Prentice-Hall

  • Atwood ME & Polson PG (1976) Cognitive Psychology 8:191-216

Recent references

  • Huys QJM et al. (2015) PLoS Computational Biology 11:e1004112

Planning

Process ID: hed_planning

Mental formulation of a sequence of actions toward a goal before execution.

Tasks

The following tasks engage this process:

Fundamental references

  • Shallice (1982) Philosophical Transactions B 298:199–209 (Tower of London)

Subgoaling

Process ID: hed_subgoaling

Decomposition of a goal into an ordered sequence of subgoals whose satisfaction advances the overall task; dissociable from means-ends search and often studied through hierarchical task analysis.

Tasks

The following tasks engage this process:

Fundamental references

  • Egan DE & Greeno JG (1974) in Knowledge and Cognition Erlbaum

  • Anderson JR (1983) The Architecture of Cognition Harvard University Press

Recent references

  • Ribas-Fernandes JJF et al. (2011) Neuron 71:370-379

  • Balaguer J et al. (2016) Neuron 90:893-903