Selectional processes in causality judgment

Shanks, David R.

doi:10.3758/bf03199554

Cited by 53 publications

(64 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Both the neutral comparison cue and the context cue were rated identically, as was predicted by the Rescorla-Wagner model. Some recent results reported by Shanks (1986Shanks ( , 1989) are consistent with these findings as well. In one study using the tank video game described in the introduction, Shanks gave two groups of subjects experience with a random contingency between a predictor and the outcome.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

Cue interaction in human contingency judgment

1990

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Most studies of human contingency judgment have been based on the assumption that frequency information about one predictor is assessed in isolation of information about other predictors. Recent evidence, however, suggests that the judged predictive strength of one cue is influenced by the predictive strengths of other copresent cues. Two experiments demonstrate that stimuli with the same outcome contingencies may nonetheless have different predictive strengths as the result of cue interaction. The first experiment, in which a within-subject design was used, provides a demonstration of blocking. A stimulus presented in compound with a strong predictor was rated as less predictive than another stimulus that was presented in compound with a nonpredictive cue. In the second experiment, cue interactions in conditioned inhibition were examined. A stimulus gained negative predictive strength as the result of compound presentations with a positive predictor when the outcome was not presented. This negative predictor was compared with an otherwise analogous stimulus that was not presented in compound with a positive predictor. These results support the use of animal-conditioning models as accounts of human contingency learning.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

Cue interaction in human contingency judgment

1990

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“…Both Dickinson and Charnock (1985) and Hammond and Weinberg (1984) found that signaling noncontiguous reinforcers under a noncontingent schedule augmented the instrumental performance of rats. A corresponding illusion of control was induced in human causality judgment by Shanks (1989), using the same signaling operation. It will not have escaped notice that the latter concordance is between animal performance and human judgment.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Instrumental judgment and performance under variations in action-outcome contingency and contiguity

1991

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The intentional theory of instrumental performance proposes that performance of an action is determined in part by a belief about its causal effectiveness in producing a desired outcome. At variance with this notion, previous implicit learning experiments appear to have yielded dissociations between subjects' performance and beliefs. In two experiments, subjects were given an opportunity to perform an action-pressing a key on a computer keyboard-which was associated with an outcome on the computer screen according to a free-operant contingency. The subjects in one group were asked to judge the effectiveness of the action in causing the outcome, while those in a second group were asked to maximize their points score under a payoff schedule. In the first study, the effect of varying the contingency between the action and outcome was examined by keeping the probability of an outcome contiguous with an action constant and varying the probability of an outcome in the absence of an action. Performance and judgments showed a comparable sensitivity to variations ofthe instrumental contingency. In the second study, the delay between the action and the resultant outcome was varied. Increasing the action-outcome delay from 0 sec up to 4 sec produced a systematic decline in both causal judgments and performance relative to noncontingent, control conditions. These results are in accord with the intentional theory of performance, but they present difficulties for the notion of implicit learning.

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“…These workers have attempted to evaluate this proposal by seeking empirical convergence between the results of animal associative learning studies and investigations of complex human judgment. They have obtained evidence that suggests the presence of cue competition due to blocking, overshadowing, or conditioned inhibition in human contingency judgment and causal or diagnostic inference (Algom & Bizman, 1983;Chapman, 1991;Chapman & Robbins, 1990;Dickinson, Shanks, & Evenden, 1984;Gluck & Bower, 1988;Shanks, 1986Shanks, , 1989. Wasserman (199Oa) provided one such example of stimulus competition in human causality judgments in an experimental procedure modeled on work originally done by Wagner, Logan, Haberlandt, and Price (1968) and later extended by Wasserman (1974) involving animal Pavlovian and operant conditioning procedures.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several researchers have proposed that selectional processes in human causality judgments can also be described by associative models like that of Rescorla and Wagner (Chapman, 1991;Chapman & Robbins, 1990;Gluck & Bower, 1988;Shanks, 1986Shanks, , 1989Shanks & Dickinson, 1987;Wasserman, 199Oa, 199Ob). These workers have attempted to evaluate this proposal by seeking empirical convergence between the results of animal associative learning studies and investigations of complex human judgment.…”

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confidence: 99%

Cue competition in causality judgments: The role of manner of information presentation

Hamme

Wasserman

1993

Bull. Psychon. Soc.

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College students rated the causal efficacy of elements X, A, and B of food compounds AX and BX in producing the allergic reaction of a hypothetical patient. Causal ratings were made for each food after subjects received all of the results of a I6-day allergy test. With both serial and simultaneous presentation of information, ratings of distinctive elements A and B diverged and ratings of common element X decreased as the difference between the correlation of AX and BX with the allergic reaction increased. These human diagnostic judgments closely correspond with stimulus selection effects observed in the conditioned responses of animals in associative learning studies.

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Selectional processes in causality judgment

Cited by 53 publications

References 11 publications

Cue interaction in human contingency judgment

Cue interaction in human contingency judgment

Instrumental judgment and performance under variations in action-outcome contingency and contiguity

Cue competition in causality judgments: The role of manner of information presentation

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