ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the relationship between culture and informal reasoning processes. In the analyses that follow, it is argued that: (a) among the important distinctions between informal and formal reasoning is that of the contextual or situational quality of informal reasoning, and (b) some forms of informal reasoning may be viewed as a function of culture or, more specifically, of particular features of children's social-cognitive ecologies. It is proposed that for some members of a cultural community, reasoning processes become independent of the specific context in which they are developed, whereas for others, reasoning remains situationally contingent.
