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Related Experiment Videos

A dissociation between causal judgment and outcome recall.

Chris J Mitchell1, Peter F Lovibond, Chee York Gan

  • 1School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. chris.mitchell@unsw.edu.au

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
|March 10, 2006
PubMed
Summary

Human causal learning may rely on reasoning, not just associations. Experiments show that while associative strength influences recall, causal judgments favor inferential processes, challenging associative models of cause perception.

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Learning and Memory
  • Causal Inference

Background:

  • Causal learning in humans is debated, with theories suggesting either associative processes (like Pavlovian conditioning) or inferential reasoning.
  • Associative accounts propose that causal judgments reflect the strength of learned associations between cause and effect.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether associative strength directly translates into causal ratings in human learning.
  • To compare associative and inferential accounts of causal judgment using a direct measure of association.

Main Methods:

  • Participants underwent training with causal compounds (AB+, CD+) and single cues (A+, C-).
  • Associative strength was measured using cued recall (identifying the outcome paired with a cause).

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  • Causal judgments were collected to assess perceived causality of different cues.

    • Main Results:

    • Cued recall indicated higher associative strength for cue B (due to augmentation from cue A) compared to cue D.
    • Conversely, cue B was rated as less causal than cue D in the judgment task (demonstrating cue competition).

    Conclusions:

    • The dissociation between associative strength (cued recall) and causal judgment (cue competition) supports inferential accounts of causal judgment.
    • Human causal judgments appear to be driven more by reasoning processes than by simple associative strength.