Judgments of causal efficacy under constant and changing interevent contingencies

Masayoshi Katagiri; Shu-Fang Kao; Adam M Simon; Leyre Castro; Edward A Wasserman

doi:10.1016/j.beproc.2006.09.001

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Judgments of causal efficacy under constant and changing interevent contingencies

Journal article

Peer reviewed

Judgments of causal efficacy under constant and changing interevent contingencies

Masayoshi Katagiri, Shu-Fang Kao, Adam M Simon, Leyre Castro and Edward A Wasserman

Behavioural processes, Vol.74(2), pp.251-264

2007

DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2006.09.001

PMID: 17029817

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Abstract

How do people judge constant and varying interevent contingencies? In two experiments, 150 college students rated the efficacy of a potential cause (an experimental fertilizer) of an effect (a plant's blooming). The prevailing probabilistic interevent relation could remain constant for the entirety of the problem or it could change without warning at the midway point: by contingency reversal, by shifting from noncontingency to contingency, or by shifting from contingency to noncontingency. Participants’ trial-by-trial ratings sensitively tracked the prevailing positive, negative, and noncontingent interevent relations, even those that entailed an unsignaled change in contingency. Changes in specific cells of the 2 × 2 contingency table differentially affected participants’ response to the altered interevent relations. All of this evidence was well described by an associative account of contingency and causal judgments.

Contingency judgments

Causal learning

Details

Title: Subtitle: Judgments of causal efficacy under constant and changing interevent contingencies
Creators: Masayoshi Katagiri - Utsunomiya University, Utsunomiya, Japan
Shu-Fang Kao - National Hsinchu University of Education, Hsinchu City, Taiwan, ROC
Adam M Simon - Fiedler Center at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, United States
Leyre Castro - Department of Psychology, E11 Seashore Hall, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242-1407, United States
Edward A Wasserman - Department of Psychology, E11 Seashore Hall, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242-1407, United States
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Behavioural processes, Vol.74(2), pp.251-264
Publisher: Elsevier B.V
DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2006.09.001
PMID: 17029817
ISSN: 0376-6357
eISSN: 1872-8308
Grant note: DOI: 10.13039/501100001700, name: Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
Language: English
Date published: 2007
Academic Unit: Psychological and Brain Sciences; Iowa Neuroscience Institute
Record Identifier: 9984070767102771

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