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Related Experiment Videos

Inference suppression and semantic memory retrieval: every counterexample counts.

Wim De Neys1, Walter Schaeken, Géry d'Ydewalle

  • 1Lab Experimental Psychology, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium. wim.deneys@psy.kuleuven.ac.be

Memory & Cognition
|July 23, 2003
PubMed
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Retrieving counterexamples, like alternative causes, significantly impacts causal conditional reasoning. Each additional counterexample found reduces the acceptance of certain logical inferences, affecting how people reason with "if-then" statements.

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Human Reasoning
  • Memory Retrieval

Background:

  • Conditional reasoning, particularly with causal content, is influenced by counterexample retrieval from semantic memory.
  • Understanding the dynamics of this retrieval process is crucial for explaining human logical inference.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the characteristics of counterexample search in everyday causal conditional reasoning.
  • To determine how the number of retrieved counterexamples affects the acceptance of different conditional inferences.

Main Methods:

  • Experiment 1: Manipulated the number of explicitly presented counterexamples (alternative causes, disabling conditions) for causal conditionals.
  • Experiment 2: Assessed participants' ability to generate counterexamples for causal conditionals via a pretest, followed by a reasoning task one month later.

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Main Results:

  • Acceptance of modus ponens decreased linearly with each additional retrieved disabler.
  • Acceptance of affirmation of the consequent decreased linearly with the number of retrieved alternatives.
  • Results for denial of the antecedent and modus tollens were less conclusive.

Conclusions:

  • The search for counterexamples in causal reasoning does not cease after finding just one.
  • Each additional counterexample retrieved demonstrably impacts the acceptance of logical inferences, highlighting a graded effect.