Conflict Detection and Figure Effect in Three‐Model Syllogisms

Abstract In reasoning problems, people's logical judgments are often influenced by the believability of the conclusions. Research on conflict detection has revealed that conflict between belief‐based heuristic responses and logical rules is typically detected, even in complex three‐model syllogisms. However, previous studies have overlooked the figure effect. This study explores conflict detection in both preferred and nonpreferred figure three‐model syllogisms. In the preferred figure condition, participants responded more slowly and had less confidence when they answered conflict problems incorrectly, compared to when they answered no‐conflict problems correctly. In the nonpreferred figure, while response time suggests that conflict detection disappears, response confidence still reflects conflict detection. This indicates that participants could still successfully detect conflict even in the complex three‐model syllogisms, supporting the “inhibition failure” view. The discrepancy between response time and response confidence requires further investigation.