An fMRI analysis of the efficacy of Euler diagrams in logical reasoning

Yuri Sato, Sayako Masuda, Yoshiaki Someya, Takeo Tsujii, Shigeru Watanabe

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

15 Scopus citations

Abstract

We compared participant performance and brain activation changes during a syllogism-solving task with and without Euler diagrams, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Our experiment showed that when Euler diagrams were present, (i) response times in the task were significantly shorter than those in the usual reasoning task comprising only sentences, and (ii) the magnitude of activation in the left middle frontal gyrus (near BA 10), left inferior PFC (near BA 47), and left dorsal PFC (BA 6) was reduced. Result (i) provides evidence for the occurrence of cognitive offloading even when participants handle information of both sentences and diagrams in reasoning tasks. Result (ii) suggests that complex processes of inferences can be replaced by simple diagram manipulation. It is argued that cognitive details that are not fully specified by behavioral studies can be made salient using neuroscientific methods.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings - 2015 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing, VL/HCC 2015
EditorsScott D. Fleming, Zhen Li, Claudia Ermel
PublisherIEEE Computer Society
Pages143-151
Number of pages9
ISBN (Electronic)9781467374576
DOIs
StatePublished - 2015/12/14
EventIEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing, VL/HCC 2015 - Atlanta, United States
Duration: 2015/10/182015/10/22

Publication series

NameProceedings of IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing, VL/HCC
Volume2015-December
ISSN (Print)1943-6092
ISSN (Electronic)1943-6106

Conference

ConferenceIEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing, VL/HCC 2015
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityAtlanta
Period2015/10/182015/10/22

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Computational Theory and Mathematics
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Software

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