Induction of causal chains
نویسندگان
چکیده
The current study examined one way in which people learn complex causal relations from covariation. When participants were presented with covariation information between X and Y and covariation information between Y and Z only, they were willing to infer a causal relationship between X and Z, although it is not warranted by the evidence. Furthermore, the perceived strength of the terminal relationship was tied to the perceived strength of the intermediate relationships, as manipulated through the order of evidence. These results imply that people do not follow normative, contigency-based theories, but instead carry out a hypothesis-testing process and combine piecemeal relationships into an overarching causal induction.
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