Abstract

Any of the process theories of syllogistic reasoning must provide an alternative interpretation of the atmosphere effect. The theory of integration process advanced here claims that the reasoner first construct a representation for the possible set interpiretations of middle term which occurs in both premises, and then draw a conclusion on the basis of the cverlapping set of the middle term. The theory further proposes that mutually exclusive set of the middle term affects the confidence level in drawing the conclusion as the case may be. Predictions from the theory are fairly close to the data of Dickstein. (1978) and Johnson-Laird and Steedman (1978) in which the complete response distributions of all 64 syllogisms are reported. Comparable support for th.e theory is evident in the data from the experiments on linear syllogism, which report the figural effect arises from the process of integrating the premises on the basis of middle term information.