Causal discounting in the presence of a stronger cue is due to bias.
People use information about the covariation between a putative cause and an outcome to determine whether a causal relationship obtains. When there are two candidate causes and one is more strongly related to the effect than is the other, the influence of the second is underestimated. This phenomenon is called causal discounting. In two experiments, we adapted paradigms for studying causal learning in order to apply signal detection analysis to this phenomenon. We investigated whether the presence of a stronger alternative makes the task more difficult (indexed by differences in d') or whether people change the standard by which they assess causality (measured by beta). Our results indicate that the effect is due to bias.
Laux
Jeffrey P
JP
Department of Psychology, University of Texas, Austin, Texas 78712, USA. laux@mail.utexas.edu
Goedert
Kelly M
KM
Markman
Arthur B
AB
D003071:Cognition; D003463:Cues; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D017603:Signal Detection, Psychological
Psychol Rev. 2007 Jul;114(3):759-83
17638505
Q J Exp Psychol (Hove). 2007 Jun;60(6):753-61
17514591
Mem Cognit. 2004 Jan;32(1):107-24
15078048
Q J Exp Psychol A. 2002 Oct;55(4):1339-62
12420998
J Exp Psychol Gen. 2008 May;137(2):226-43
18473655
Psychol Rev. 1992 Apr;99(2):365-82
1594730
Mem Cognit. 1978 Sep;6(5):544-53
24203388
Learn Behav. 2005 May;33(2):250-63
16075843
J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2005 Sep;31(5):1105-20
16248753
Psychol Sci. 2005 Aug;16(8):590-5
16102060
Learn Behav. 2005 May;33(2):197-210
16075839