One current project examines theories of mathematical knowledge, including the relation between math induction and ordinary induction (Rips & Asmuth, 2007), theories of children’s acquisition of natural numbers (Rips. Asmuth, & Bloomfield, 2006; Rips, Asmuth, & Bloomfield, 2008), and adults’ beliefs about the nature of numbers and number systems (Rips, 2015; Rips & Thompson, 2014).

A second line of research (in collaboration with Fabrizio Cariani) is about people’s understanding of conditional (if-then) sentences, especially how people’s interpretation of these sentences depends on context (Cariani & Rips, 2016) and pragmatics (Cariani & Rips, in press).

Another reasoning project centers on understanding causality. We’re exploring how different concepts of causality inform our judgments of events and whether formal theories of causality (e.g., Bayes nets) can give a systematic account of counterfactual conditionals (such as, If Martha hadn’t gone to college, she would have gotten a job as a construction worker). For a review of current theories of causal thinking, see Rips (2008) and for the experimental findings,  Rips (2010) and Rips & Edwards (2013). An examination of evidence and claims about Michottean “causal perception” appears in Rips (2011). Also check the Concepts page of this web site for research on causal theories of individual concepts (individual people or cats or tables).

You can also find some earlier papers on deductive reasoning and argumentation in the Publications Page.