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https://hdl.handle.net/2440/75148
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Type: | Journal article |
Title: | Competition between multiple causes of a single outcome in causal reasoning |
Author: | Darredeau, C. Baetu, I. Baker, A. Murphy, R. |
Citation: | Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition, 2009; 35(1):1-14 |
Publisher: | Amer Psychological Assoc |
Issue Date: | 2009 |
ISSN: | 0097-7403 1939-2184 |
Statement of Responsibility: | Christine Darredeau, Irina Baetu, Andrew G. Baker and Robin A. Murphy |
Abstract: | A strong positive predictor of an outcome modulates the causal judgments of a moderate predictor. To study the empirical basis of this modulation, we compared treatments with one and with two strong competing (i.e., modulating) causes. This allowed us to vary the frequency of outcome occurrences or effects paired with the predictors. We investigated causal competition between positive predictors (those signaling the occurrence of the outcome), between negative predictors (those signaling the absence of the outcome) and between predictors of opposite polarity (positive and negative). The results are consistent with a contrast rather than a reduced associative strength or conditional contingency account, because a strong predictor of opposite polarity enhances rather than reduces causal estimates of moderate predictors. In addition, we found competition effects when the strong predictor predicted fewer outcome occurrences than the moderate predictor, thus implying that cue competition is, at least sometimes, a consequence of contingency rather than total cue-outcome pairings. |
Keywords: | Humans Competitive Behavior Cues Decision Making Judgment |
Rights: | © 2009 American Psychological Association |
DOI: | 10.1037/a0012699 |
Published version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0012699 |
Appears in Collections: | Aurora harvest Psychology publications |
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