Journal article
Causal knowledge : what can psychology teach philosophers?
The Journal of mind and behavior, Vol.13(1), pp.1-28
1992
Abstract
Theories of how organisms learn about cause-effect relations have a history dating back at least to the associationist/mechanistic hypothesis of David Hume. Some contemporary theories of causal learning are descendants of Hume's mechanistic models of conditioning, but others impute principled, rule-based reasoning. Since even primitive animals are conditionable, it is clear that there are built-in mechanical algorithms that respond to cause/effect relations. The evidence suggests that humans retain the use of such algorithms, which are surely adaptive when causal judgments must be rapidly made. But we know very little about what these algorithms are and about when and with what ratiocinative procedures they are sometimes replaced. Nor do we know how the concept of causation originates in humans. To clarify some of these issues, this paper surveys the literature and explores the behavioral predictions made by two contrasting theories of causal learning: the mechanical Rescorla-Wagner model and the sophisticated reasoning codified in Bayes' Theorem.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Causal knowledge : what can psychology teach philosophers?
- Creators
- Evan Fales - Univ. Iowa, dep. psychology, Iowa City IA 52242, United StatesEdward A Wasserman - Univ. Iowa, dep. psychology, Iowa City IA 52242, United States
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- The Journal of mind and behavior, Vol.13(1), pp.1-28
- Publisher
- Institute of Mind and Behavior; New York, NY
- ISSN
- 0271-0137
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 1992
- Academic Unit
- Philosophy; Psychological and Brain Sciences; Iowa Neuroscience Institute
- Record Identifier
- 9984071672202771
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