title: A positive patterning advantage with complex but not simple patterning: a cue constellation approach.
abstract: Determinants of a positive patterning advantage (that is, an advantage for positive patterning over negative patterning) in human causal reasoning were examined in an experiment that compared simple patterning discriminations (A, B vs. AB) to complex patterning discriminations (AB, BC, AC vs. ABC). As predicted by a cue constellation analysis of complex discriminations, a positive patterning advantage was found with complex patterning but not with simple patterning discriminations. This result may explain why some recent studies have found a positive patterning advantage where earlier studies had failed to find one. The interaction of patterning complexity with the positive patterning advantage appears to pose problems for rule-based accounts of patterning. The results support the view that associative theories of human causal reasoning are more easily distinguished from rule-based approaches when applied to conditions that make simple rules difficult to identify or implement.
authors.affiliation: a Psychology Department , Rutgers University , Camden , NJ , USA.
authors.forename: J W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Whitlow
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001245:Association Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003463:Cues; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005518:Food Preferences; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D013334:Students; D014495:Universities