title: Mechanisms of predictive and diagnostic causal induction.
abstract: In predictive causal inference, people reason from causes to effects, whereas in diagnostic inference, they reason from effects to causes. Independently of the causal structure of the events, the temporal structure of the information provided to a reasoner may vary (e.g., multiple events followed by a single event vs. a single event followed by multiple events). The authors report 5 experiments in which causal structure and temporal information were varied independently. Inferences were influenced by temporal structure but not by causal structure. The results are relevant to the evaluation of 2 current accounts of causal induction, the Rescorla-Wagner (R. A. Rescorla & A. R. Wagner, 1972) and causal model theories (M. R. Waldmann & K. J. Holyoak, 1992).
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Psicología Básica, Universidad de Málaga, Málaga, Spain. p_cobos@uma.es
authors.forename: Pedro L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Cobos
authors.forename: Francisco J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: López
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Caño
authors.forename: Julián
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Almaraz
authors.forename: David R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Shanks
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001245:Association Learning; D015984:Causality; D003210:Concept Formation; D003463:Cues; D003662:Decision Theory; D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D019359:Knowledge; D008606:Mental Processes; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011340:Problem Solving