Comparing dual process theories: Evidence from event-related potentials

Research on the electrophysiology of reasoning is comparatively rare, but it has the potential to offer considerable insights into the time course of cognitive processes and contribute to a wide range of theoretical questions such as the role of dual processes in reasoning. Although a behavioural response to a reasoning problem can indicate a single time point at which a complex series of cognitive events ends, event-related potentials (ERPs) can be used to examine the timing of different events as they unfold during the reasoning process. That is, it is possible to measure cognitive events in the window between presentation of the problem and the behavioural response. Theories differ crucially about what occurs in this window, and ERPs offer the potential to observe this activity. A small number of studies have been conducted with the aim of identifying the electrophysiological correlates of reasoning on tasks that have been used more widely to examine dual process theory. In this chapter I will review the ERP research that has aimed to test dual process theories of reasoning, discuss the findings, and explore both the potential and the limitations of this technique. Finally, I will discuss how the theoretical implications of these findings support the idea that Type 1 processes are fast and automatic, occur in parallel, and when acquired over time, can reproduce any thinking process that can be automated, including both normatively correct logical responses and belief-based responses within a belief bias task