Imagine driving on the Fourth of July to a city that you have never visited. There is no place to park and the traffic seems very heavy. As you look for a parking place, you see streams of people heading toward the main street and you see that it has been blocked off to traffic. Not certain of what to make of all this, you think a few seconds and determine that a parade is imminent. The process that you are using to come to your conclusion sounds most like

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Inductive reasoning involves making broad generalizations from specific observations. In this scenario, observing the heavy traffic, lack of parking, people heading toward the main street, and the street being blocked off leads to the general conclusion that a parade is imminent, which is an example of inductive reasoning.  We use past information stored as schemas to generate expectations about the past or future. In this case, your past experiences with crowds and blocked traffic on this holiday lead you to surmise that a parade is coming.

Imagine Driving on the Fourth of July to a City