Embracing individual differences to model reasoning style and the relationship with sociolinguistic traits

There are many individual differences in the inferences people draw when reasoning. These are known to be due to, for instance, reasonable differences in how quantifiers are interpreted, sensitivity to syntactic features of the material to be reasoned about, and the extent to which prior knowledge about the domain of reasoning is integrated. We sought the relationship between these qualitative features of response by asking participants to reason about a series of tasks including all sixty-four categorical syllogisms, a one premise immediate inference task, and a conditional reasoning task. Since reasoning processes are arguably most frequently utilised in the social context, e.g. in conversation and argument, we also examined the relationship with autistic traits - many of which are related to sociolinguistic preferences and ability. We illustrate the relationships using general linear mixedeffects statistical models and interpret the findings with respect to theories of credulous and sceptical modes of inference.