The Influence Of Emotional State And Emotional Intensity On Conditional Reasoning

Emotion is closely related by cognitive activities. Many scholars have studied the relationship between mood and study, memory, judgment, creativity and so on. But the relationship between mood and inference are few both domestic and overseas. This study focuses on the influence of two emotional situations on reasoning:(1) the influence of individual’s own emotional state on reasoning;(2) the influence of reasoning with different emotional intensities on individual reasoning results.Experiment one explores individual’s reasoning results in different emotional states by manipulating the emotional situations to trigger different emotional states. Experiment uses3(emotional state:positive, negative and control group) x4(reasoning forms:MP, MT, DA and AC) two-factor mixed experimental design. The emotional states are serving as between-subjects factors, reasoning forms as within-subjects factors, and the subjects’ reasoning results as dependent variable.Experiment two explores individual’s reasoning results in different emotional intensities by manipulating the emotional intensities to trigger different emotional intensities. Experiment uses3(emotion intensity:emotional state of calm group, a positive emotional state of moderate-intensity group and a state of extreme positive emotion group)×4(reasoning forms:MP, MT, DA and AC) two-factor mixed experimental design. The emotional intensities are serving as between-subjects factors, reasoning forms as within-subjects factors, and the subjects’reasoning results as dependent variable.Through the research we draw the following several conclusions:(1) Positive and negative emotions inhibit the individual’s reasoning.(2) When the mood is induced by the reasoning tasks, a certain emotional intensity of the positive would facilitate the ability of reasoning.(3) In conditional reasoning, the form of Modus Ponens (MP) is simplest; Modus Tollens (MT) is harder than Modus Ponens (MP); the direction of the difference between Denying the Antecedent (DA) and Affirming the Consequent (AC) are most difficult are not fixed.