Može li se neuroticizam mjeriti zadacima silogističkog rezonovanja?
Can neuroticism be measured through syllogistic-reasoning tasks?

Summary/Abstract: The aim of the study was to assess whether people with high and low levels of neuroticism differ in their syllogistic reasoning scores. This difference could enable an indirect measurement of neuroticism. The study was conducted on 32 psychology students. The initial item pool for reasoning task construction was extracted in a principal component analysis of neuroticism items. Four types of categorical syllogism were constructed: modus ponens (MP), modus tollens (MT), affirming the consequent (AC), and denying the antecedent (DA), overall 64 (16 x 4) syllogisms with neuroticism content in premises and conclusion. Ego-reference was added to the conclusion in a way that each conclusion was formulated in the first person singular. Pretest NEO-PI-R neuroticism scores, as well as Advanced Raven progressive matrices data were used in the study. All tests show good measurement characteristics with internal consistencies of reasoning tasks ranging from .84 to .95. A 2 x 4 mixed ANCOVA was conducted, with syllogism type as a within-subjects factor, dichotomized neuroticism as a between-subjects factor, and intellectual ability as covariate. The dependent variable was believability rate, operationalized as acceptance of neuroticism conclusion (MP and AC) and rejection of non-neuroticism conclusion (MT and DA). Syllogism type x dichotomized neuroticism interaction was significant F(3,27) = 5.05, p < .01, h2 = .36, with the high neuroticism group showing a greater believability rate on modus ponens (M = .86, SD = .05 vs. M = .79, SD = .11), modus tollens (M =.65, SD = .26 vs. M = .36, SD = .22), and marginally (p = .06) denying the antecedent (M = .48, SD = .31 vs. M = .30, SD = .20). Exceptionally on affirming the consequent the low neuroticism group showed higher believability (M = .70, SD = .13) than the high neuroticism group (M = .50, SD = .19), which could be accounted for by easier recognition of false positives in people with neurotic tendencies.

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