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Causal Reasoning

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Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

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Definition

Causal reasoning refers to all cognition about cause and effect, except learning. “Reasoning” can refer to any post-learning cognitive processing, and the qualifier “causal” stipulates concern with cause and effect. Theories of causal reasoning may concern the structure of associations, how agents use such structures, or how that structure affects action. Although focus is most often on acquired structures, this is not a principled limitation. At least some causal reasoning research with nonhuman animals is phrased in terms of dispositions.

The topic applied to nonhuman animals is controversial. The controversy is largely due to misapprehensions about the term, but there are genuine theoretical disagreements regarding even the presence of causal reasoning as well.

“Reasoning” is a connotatively rich word, and this richness can mislead by appearing to attribute more than what a theory actually concerns. This danger can be alleviated (and some of the less productive...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey

    Robert Ian Bowers

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  1. Robert Ian Bowers
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Correspondence to Robert Ian Bowers .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

  2. Rochester, MI, USA

    Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. University of Redlands, Redlands, CA, USA

    Catherine Salmon

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Bowers, R.I. (2022). Causal Reasoning. In: Shackelford, T.K., Weekes-Shackelford, V.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3114-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3114-2

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Causal Reasoning
    Published:
    17 February 2022

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3114-2

  2. Original

    Causal Reasoning
    Published:
    22 July 2017

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3114-1

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