Simon J Handley
Biographic Data
| ID | 2747339 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Simon J Handley |
| GIVEN NAMES | Simon J |
| FAMILY NAME | Handley |
| SIGNATURE | HANDLEY S J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Plymouth |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4404-7452 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 11 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 13 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1998 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
What it takes to change your mind
The uncertainty monitoring account proposes that during reasoning, people may generate several intuitive responses, each contributing to an overall uncertainty parameter that will trigger conscious deliberation if it becomes high enough. In two experiments (total N = 186), we test this account by utilising methods and theory of metacognition – which also describes a second-order process that regulates the operation of first-order cognition. We an…
A single process for deductive and inductive inference? Examining the impact of conclusion typicality and argument validity on immediate inferences
Inductive and deductive inferences have been assumed to rely on two qualitatively distinct processes by dual-process theories. However, studies examining the predictions of this theory have yielded mixed results, with several studies showing that a single process underlies both deductive and inductive judgments. Previous studies have used a range of manipulations, response options, and analytical techniques, which might partly explain the inconcl…
Illusory intuitive inferences
The design stance, intentional stance, and teleological beliefs about biological and nonbiological natural entities
Teleology involves an appeal to function to explain why things are the way they are. Among scientists and philosophers, teleological explanations are widely accepted for human-made artifacts and biological traits, yet controversial for biological and nonbiological natural entities. Prior research shows a positive relationship between religiosity and acceptance of such controversial teleological explanations. Across three large online studies, we …
The excess choice effect
Contrary to economic theory, psychological research has demonstrated increased choice can undermine satisfaction. When and why this 'excess choice effect' (ECE) occurs remains unclear. Building on theories of counterfactual thinking we argue the ECE is more likely to occur when people experience counterfactual thought or emotion and that a key trigger is a negative versus positive task outcome. Participants either selected a drink (Experiment 1) …
Making heads or tails of probability
Background. The equiprobability bias is a tendency for individuals to think of probabilistic events as ‘equiprobable’ by nature, and to judge outcomes that occur with different probabilities as equally likely. The equiprobability bias has been repeatedly found to be related to formal education in statistics, and it is claimed to be based on a misunderstanding of the concept of randomness. Aims. The aim of the present study was to examine whether …
Are systemizing and autistic traits related to talent and interest in mathematics and engineering? Testing some of the central claims of the empathizing-systemizing theory
In two experiments, we tested some of the central claims of the empathizing-systemizing (E-S) theory. Experiment 1 showed that the systemizing quotient (SQ) was unrelated to performance on a mathematics test, although it was correlated with statistics-related attitudes, self-efficacy, and anxiety. In Experiment 2, systemizing skills, and gender differences in these skills, were more strongly related to spatial thinking styles than to SQ. In fact,…
Spoilt for choice
Conditional reasoning in autism
Everyday conditional reasoning is typically influenced by prior knowledge and belief in the form of specific exceptions known as counterexamples. This study explored whether adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; N = 26) were less influenced by background knowledge than typically developing adolescents (N = 38) when engaged in conditional reasoning. Participants were presented with pretested valid and invalid conditional inferences with …
Dyslexia and reasoning
Recent research has suggested that individuals with dyslexia rely on explicit visuospatial representations for syllogistic reasoning while most non-dyslexics opt for an abstract verbal strategy. This paper investigates the role of visual processes in relational reasoning amongst dyslexic reasoners. Expt 1 presents written and verbal protocol evidence to suggest that reasoners with dyslexia generate detailed representations of relational propertie…
Reasoning and dyslexia
Bacon, Handley, and Newstead (2003, 2004), have presented evidence for individual differences in reasoning strategies, with most people seeming to represent and manipulate problem information using either a verbal or a spatial strategy. There is also evidence that individuals with dyslexia are inclined to conceptualise information in a visuo-spatial, rather than a verbal, way (e.g. von Károlyi et al., 2003). If so, we might expect a higher propor…
Conditional reasoning and the Tower of Hanoi
This paper reports a study that investigated the relationships between verbal and spatial measures of working memory capacity and performance on the Tower of Hanoi and a conditional reasoning task. Four working memory measures were included, a simple word span, a simple spatial span, a complex verbal span and a complex spatial span. The participants were 70 undergraduate students. Solution time on the Tower of Hanoi task correlated highly with bo…
Ordering of information in conditional reasoning
Two experiments are reported in which participants are asked to evaluate computer‐presented conditional syllogisms consisting of a major premise (conditional rule), a minor premise and a conclusion. As an example the modus tollens inference with an affirmative conditional has the form if p then q, not‐q therefore not‐p . In these experiments, participants were asked to judge the validity of four types of conditional syllogisms with four types of …
Spoilt for choice
Reasoning and dyslexia
Bacon, Handley, and Newstead (2003, 2004), have presented evidence for individual differences in reasoning strategies, with most people seeming to represent and manipulate problem information using either a verbal or a spatial strategy. There is also evidence that individuals with dyslexia are inclined to conceptualise information in a visuo-spatial, rather than a verbal, way (e.g. von Károlyi et al., 2003). If so, we might expect a higher propor…
The design stance, intentional stance, and teleological beliefs about biological and nonbiological natural entities
Teleology involves an appeal to function to explain why things are the way they are. Among scientists and philosophers, teleological explanations are widely accepted for human-made artifacts and biological traits, yet controversial for biological and nonbiological natural entities. Prior research shows a positive relationship between religiosity and acceptance of such controversial teleological explanations. Across three large online studies, we …
The excess choice effect
Contrary to economic theory, psychological research has demonstrated increased choice can undermine satisfaction. When and why this 'excess choice effect' (ECE) occurs remains unclear. Building on theories of counterfactual thinking we argue the ECE is more likely to occur when people experience counterfactual thought or emotion and that a key trigger is a negative versus positive task outcome. Participants either selected a drink (Experiment 1) …
Dyslexia and reasoning
Recent research has suggested that individuals with dyslexia rely on explicit visuospatial representations for syllogistic reasoning while most non-dyslexics opt for an abstract verbal strategy. This paper investigates the role of visual processes in relational reasoning amongst dyslexic reasoners. Expt 1 presents written and verbal protocol evidence to suggest that reasoners with dyslexia generate detailed representations of relational propertie…
Conditional reasoning and the Tower of Hanoi
This paper reports a study that investigated the relationships between verbal and spatial measures of working memory capacity and performance on the Tower of Hanoi and a conditional reasoning task. Four working memory measures were included, a simple word span, a simple spatial span, a complex verbal span and a complex spatial span. The participants were 70 undergraduate students. Solution time on the Tower of Hanoi task correlated highly with bo…
Ordering of information in conditional reasoning
Two experiments are reported in which participants are asked to evaluate computer‐presented conditional syllogisms consisting of a major premise (conditional rule), a minor premise and a conclusion. As an example the modus tollens inference with an affirmative conditional has the form if p then q, not‐q therefore not‐p . In these experiments, participants were asked to judge the validity of four types of conditional syllogisms with four types of …
Conditional reasoning and the Tower of Hanoi
This paper reports a study that investigated the relationships between verbal and spatial measures of working memory capacity and performance on the Tower of Hanoi and a conditional reasoning task. Four working memory measures were included, a simple word span, a simple spatial span, a complex verbal span and a complex spatial span. The participants were 70 undergraduate students. Solution time on the Tower of Hanoi task correlated highly with bo…
Reasoning and dyslexia
Bacon, Handley, and Newstead (2003, 2004), have presented evidence for individual differences in reasoning strategies, with most people seeming to represent and manipulate problem information using either a verbal or a spatial strategy. There is also evidence that individuals with dyslexia are inclined to conceptualise information in a visuo-spatial, rather than a verbal, way (e.g. von Károlyi et al., 2003). If so, we might expect a higher propor…
Conditional reasoning in autism
Everyday conditional reasoning is typically influenced by prior knowledge and belief in the form of specific exceptions known as counterexamples. This study explored whether adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; N = 26) were less influenced by background knowledge than typically developing adolescents (N = 38) when engaged in conditional reasoning. Participants were presented with pretested valid and invalid conditional inferences with …
Dyslexia and reasoning
Recent research has suggested that individuals with dyslexia rely on explicit visuospatial representations for syllogistic reasoning while most non-dyslexics opt for an abstract verbal strategy. This paper investigates the role of visual processes in relational reasoning amongst dyslexic reasoners. Expt 1 presents written and verbal protocol evidence to suggest that reasoners with dyslexia generate detailed representations of relational propertie…
Spoilt for choice
Are systemizing and autistic traits related to talent and interest in mathematics and engineering? Testing some of the central claims of the empathizing-systemizing theory
In two experiments, we tested some of the central claims of the empathizing-systemizing (E-S) theory. Experiment 1 showed that the systemizing quotient (SQ) was unrelated to performance on a mathematics test, although it was correlated with statistics-related attitudes, self-efficacy, and anxiety. In Experiment 2, systemizing skills, and gender differences in these skills, were more strongly related to spatial thinking styles than to SQ. In fact,…
Making heads or tails of probability
Background. The equiprobability bias is a tendency for individuals to think of probabilistic events as ‘equiprobable’ by nature, and to judge outcomes that occur with different probabilities as equally likely. The equiprobability bias has been repeatedly found to be related to formal education in statistics, and it is claimed to be based on a misunderstanding of the concept of randomness. Aims. The aim of the present study was to examine whether …
The excess choice effect
Contrary to economic theory, psychological research has demonstrated increased choice can undermine satisfaction. When and why this 'excess choice effect' (ECE) occurs remains unclear. Building on theories of counterfactual thinking we argue the ECE is more likely to occur when people experience counterfactual thought or emotion and that a key trigger is a negative versus positive task outcome. Participants either selected a drink (Experiment 1) …
The design stance, intentional stance, and teleological beliefs about biological and nonbiological natural entities
Teleology involves an appeal to function to explain why things are the way they are. Among scientists and philosophers, teleological explanations are widely accepted for human-made artifacts and biological traits, yet controversial for biological and nonbiological natural entities. Prior research shows a positive relationship between religiosity and acceptance of such controversial teleological explanations. Across three large online studies, we …
Illusory intuitive inferences
What it takes to change your mind
The uncertainty monitoring account proposes that during reasoning, people may generate several intuitive responses, each contributing to an overall uncertainty parameter that will trigger conscious deliberation if it becomes high enough. In two experiments (total N = 186), we test this account by utilising methods and theory of metacognition – which also describes a second-order process that regulates the operation of first-order cognition. We an…
A single process for deductive and inductive inference? Examining the impact of conclusion typicality and argument validity on immediate inferences
Inductive and deductive inferences have been assumed to rely on two qualitatively distinct processes by dual-process theories. However, studies examining the predictions of this theory have yielded mixed results, with several studies showing that a single process underlies both deductive and inductive judgments. Previous studies have used a range of manipulations, response options, and analytical techniques, which might partly explain the inconcl…
Psychology (12 works) · Cognitive psychology (10 works) · Cognition (7 works) · Computer Science (7 works) · Artificial Intelligence (6 works) · Artificial Intelligence (6 works) · Social Psychology (5 works) · Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics (4 works) · Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies (3 works) · Inference (3 works)