We present a theory of how people reason about properties. Such inferences have been studied since Aristotle’s invention of Western logic. But, no previous psychological theory gives an adequate account of them, and most theories do not go beyond syllogistic inferences, such as: All the bankers are architects; Some of the chefs are bankers; What follows? The present theory postulates that such assertions establish relations between properties, which mental models represent in corresponding relations between sets of entities. The theory combines the construction of models with innovative heuristics that scan them to draw conclusions. It explains the processes that can generate a conclusion from premises, decide if a given conclusion is necessary or possible, assess its probability, and evaluate the consistency of a set of assertions. A computer program implementing the theory embodies an intuitive system 1 and a deliberative system 2, and it copes with quantifiers such as more than half the architects. It fit data from over 200 different sorts of inference, including those about the properties of individuals, the properties of a set of individuals, and the properties of several such sets in syllogisms. Another innovation is that the program accounts for differences in reasoning from one individual to another, and from one group of individuals to another: Some tend to reason intuitively but some go beyond intuitions to search for alternative models. The theory extends to inferences about disjunctions of properties, about relations rather than properties, and about the properties of properties. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)

中文翻译：

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关于属性的推理：一种计算理论。

我们提出了一个关于人们如何推理属性的理论。自从亚里士多德发明西方逻辑以来，就一直在研究这种推论。但是，以前的心理学理论没有对它们给出充分的解释，而且大多数理论都没有超出三段论的推论，例如：所有银行家都是建筑师；一些厨师是银行家；接下来是什么? 目前的理论假设这样的断言建立了属性之间的关系，心理模型在实体集之间的对应关系中表示了这种关系。该理论将模型的构建与创新的启发式方法结合起来，通过扫描模型得出结论。它解释了可以从前提中得出结论的过程，决定给定结论是否必要或可能，评估其概率，并评估一组断言的一致性。实现该理论的计算机程序体现了直觉系统 1 和审慎系统 2，并且它可以应对超过一半的建筑师等量词。它拟合了来自 200 多种不同类型推理的数据，包括关于个体属性、一组个体属性以及三段论中几个这样的集合属性的数据。另一项创新是该程序解释了从一个人到另一个人，以及从一组人到另一个人的推理差异：有些人倾向于直觉推理，但有些人超越直觉来寻找替代模型。该理论延伸到关于性质的析取、关于关系而不是性质以及关于性质的性质的推论。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2021 APA，保留所有权利）