Question
Which of these examples illustrates deductive reasoning?
A. You come down with the flu after you pretended to be sick so you could skip work to attend a concert. Now you decide that fate always punishes you for bad behavior.
B. You learned in elementary school that as temperature drops, liquids change into solid form. You are given an unfamiliar liquid and predict that it will become solid if you put it in the freezer.
C. You and your roommate both drank two cups of coffee before an exam, and both of you got a better than average mark on the exam. You hypothesize that coffee drinking improves academic performance.
A. You come down with the flu after you pretended to be sick so you could skip work to attend a concert. Now you decide that fate always punishes you for bad behavior.
B. You learned in elementary school that as temperature drops, liquids change into solid form. You are given an unfamiliar liquid and predict that it will become solid if you put it in the freezer.
C. You and your roommate both drank two cups of coffee before an exam, and both of you got a better than average mark on the exam. You hypothesize that coffee drinking improves academic performance.
Answers
GPT-4o mini
B. You learned in elementary school that as temperature drops, liquids change into solid form. You are given an unfamiliar liquid and predict that it will become solid if you put it in the freezer.
This example illustrates deductive reasoning because it starts with a general principle (that liquids turn into solids as temperature drops) and applies it to a specific case (predicting that the unfamiliar liquid will become solid if placed in the freezer). Deductive reasoning moves from general to specific, while the other examples involve inductive reasoning or reasoning based on anecdotal evidence.
This example illustrates deductive reasoning because it starts with a general principle (that liquids turn into solids as temperature drops) and applies it to a specific case (predicting that the unfamiliar liquid will become solid if placed in the freezer). Deductive reasoning moves from general to specific, while the other examples involve inductive reasoning or reasoning based on anecdotal evidence.