Deductive rationality in validating and testing conditional inferences.
We asked people to validate conditional inferences (e.g., "A, therefore C" with "if A then C"). People are more likely to look for falsifications ("A and not-C") versus confirmations ("A and C") given a forced choice. Second, falsification rates are lower for logically valid versus invalid inferences. Logically valid inferences are inferences that follow necessarily. Experiment 1 (N = 96) shows that emphasising this logicality constraint increases falsification rates in the validation task and corroborates that validation-by-falsification increases logically correct inference evaluations. Experiment 2 (N = 41) corroborates the other way round that people who are more likely to make logically correct evaluations, show higher falsification performance in the validation task. The results support mental-models theory and suggest alternative theories similarly need to specify how people would go about looking for counterexamples. We proffer such a specification for two alternatives to the model theory.
Schroyens
Walter
W
Department of Psychology, University of Gent, Gent, Belgium. Walter.Schroyens@Ugent.be
Schaeken
Walter
W
D003071:Cognition; D006801:Humans; D008128:Logic; D008606:Mental Processes; D008960:Models, Psychological; D013850:Thinking