Super-learning of causal judgements.
In three experiments, participants learned which of a variety of foods were capable of causing an allergic reaction in a hypothetical patient during training in which a compound of a treatment and a target food cue was paired with the reaction. In Experiment 1 the causal ratings of the target cue were increased if the treatment cue was pretrained as a preventative cause of the reaction. Experiments 2 and 3 demonstrated that the magnitude of this super-learning is unaffected by the order of compound and treatment cue training. The final study also showed that forward super-learning is not induced solely by simple exposure to the treatment cue prior to compound training but, rather, depends upon training the treatment cue as a preventative cause, whereas retrospective super-learning may be due merely to exposure of the treatment cue. These results are problematic for contingency-based accounts of causal induction but accord with modified and extended associative theories.
Aitken
M R
MR
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, U.K.
Larkin
M J
MJ
Dickinson
A
A
D000328:Adult; D001245:Association Learning; D015984:Causality; D003214:Conditioning, Classical; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D005512:Food Hypersensitivity / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D010056:Overlearning; D011337:Probability Learning