"The atmosphere effect in syllogistic reasoning, as advanced by Woodworth and Sells [see 9: 5531] and by Sells [see 11: 170], was investigated by means of a multiple-choice syllogisms test. Marked and consistent error preferences were found which did not coincide with those predicted by atmosphere. The pattern of error preferences was tentatively ascribed to reasoning behavior which often leads to correct solutions of everyday problems but which is disallowed in the traditional rules of the syllogism." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)