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Ausgehend von den philosophischen Ansätzen von Heraklit, Demokrit, Aristoteles, David Hume, Immanuel Kant und neueren bedingungsanalytischen (J. L. Mackie), kontrafaktischen (D. Lewis), handlungstheoretischen (G. von Wright) und probabilistischen Modellen zur Kausalität werden folgende psychologischen Theorien kausalen Denkens und Lernens sowie Befunde zu ihrer empirischen Evidenz skizziert: (1) Assoziationstheorien (etwa Lernregel der Rescorla-Wagner-Theorie und ihre Weiterentwicklungen), (2) regelbasierte Ansätze (varianzanalytischer und kontingenztheoretischer Absatz, probabilistisches Kontrast-Modell, Theorie der Kausalen Power, Theorie der Evidenzevaluation), (3) deduktiver Ansatz, (4) mechanistischer Ansatz, (5) urteilstheoretischer Ansatz, (6) Kausalmodelle und Bayes-Netze. Insgesamt zeigt sich eine enge Verbindung zwischen den philosophischen und psychologischen Theorien.
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This book presents a comprehensive review of emerging theories and research on the dynamic nature of human judgment and decision making (JDM). Leading researchers in the fields of JDM, cognitive development, human learning, and neuroscience discuss short-term and long-term changes in JDM skills. The authors consider how such skills increase and decline on a developmental scale in children, adolescents, and the elderly; how they may be learned; and how JDM skills can be improved and aided. In addition, beyond these behavioral approaches to understanding JDM as a skill, the book provides new insights from recent evolutionary and neuropsychological approaches. The authors identify opportunities for future research on the acquisition and changing nature of JDM. In a concluding chapter, eminent past presidents of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making provide personal reflections and perspectives on the notion of JDM as a dynamic skill. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
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This special section brings together behavioral, computational, mathematical, and neuroimaging approaches to understand the processes underlying category learning. Over the past decade, there has been growing convergence in research on categorization, with computational–mathematical models influencing the interpretation of brain imaging and neuropsychological data, and with cognitive neuroscience findings influencing the development and refinement of models. Classic debates between single-system and multiple-memory-system theories have become more nuanced and focused. Multiple brain areas and cognitive processes contribute to categorization, but theories differ markedly in whether and when those neurocognitive components are recruited for different aspects of categorization. The articles in this special section approach this issue from several diverse angles. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
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Nach einer knappen Darstellung und Kritik der psychometrischen Intelligenzforschung werden Theorien und Befunde der differentiellen Kognitionsforschung zur Struktur, zum Prozess und zur Entwicklung des induktiven, deduktiven und bildhaften Denkens im Überblick dargestellt. Im Vordergrund stehen dabei die kognitive Entwicklung Hochbegabter, Analysen herausragender Problemlöseleistungen und Möglichkeiten für eine pädagogische Förderung hochbegabter Kinder und Jugendlicher. - Aus dem Inhaltsverzeichnis: (1) Von der psychometrischen Hochbegabtenforschung zur differentialpsychologischen Analyse des Denkens. (2) Kognitive Komponenten der Intelligenz \\\\#422Induktives Denken; deduktives Denken; bildhaftes Denken\\\\#423. (3) Die kognitive Entwicklung Hochbegabter \\\\#422Piaget-orientierte Ansätze; Informationsverarbeitungsansätze\\\\#423. (4) Intellektuelle Hochleistungen in komplexen Inhaltsbereichen \\\\#422Komplexes Problemlösen; Expertenleistungen beim Schach und Programmieren sowie bei physikalischen, sozialwissenschaftlichen und medizinischen Problemen\\\\#423. (5) Perspektiven der Hochbegabtenforschung und Ansätze für eine pragmatische Hochbegabtenförderung.
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The question how agent and patient roles are assigned to causal participants has largely been neglected in the psychological literature on force dynamics. Inspired by the linguistic theory of Dowty (1991), we propose that agency attributions are based on a prototype concept of human intervention. We predicted that the number of criteria a participant in a causal interaction shares with this prototype determines the strength of agency intuitions. We showed in two experiments using versions of Michotteʼs (1963) launching scenarios that agency intuitions were moderated by manipulations of the context prior to the launching event. Altering features, such as relative movement, sequence of visibility, and self-propelled motion, tended to increase agency attributions to the participant that is normally viewed as patient in the standard scenario. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
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Ausgewählte erste Ergebnisse aus der Zwillingslängsschnittstudie ``Genetisch orientierte Lebensspannenstudie zur differentiellen Entwicklung'' (GOLD) werden mitgeteilt, die sich mit der Frage des impliziten versus expliziten Lernens im Alter beschäftigen. Die vorgestellten Befunde beziehen sich auf eine Stichprobe von 199 ein- und zweieiigen Zwilligen im Alter zwischen 63 und 81 Jahren. In Bezug auf das explizite Lernen fanden sich keine Belege für einen genetischen Einfluss. Es ergaben sich Hinweise darauf, dass die allgemeine Reaktionszeit eine Persönlichkeitseigenschaft darstellt, die stark vom Intelligenzquotienten abhängt und die auch eine starke genetische Kompenente beinhaltet. Hingegen erwies sich die implizite Lernkomponente als altersinvariant und nur in geringem Maße interindividuell stabil.
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Recent experimental findings suggest that prescriptive norms influence causal inferences. The cognitive mechanism underlying this finding is still under debate. We compare three competing theories: The culpable control model of blame argues that reasoners tend to exaggerate the causal influence of norm-violating agents, which should lead to relatively higher causal strength estimates for these agents. By contrast, the counterfactual reasoning account of causal selection assumes that norms do not alter the representation of the causal model, but rather later causal selection stages. According to this view, reasoners tend to preferentially consider counterfactual states of abnormal rather than normal factors, which leads to the choice of the abnormal factor in a causal selection task. A third view, the accountability hypothesis, claims that the effects of prescriptive norms are generated by the ambiguity of the causal test question. Asking whether an agent is a cause can be understood as a request to assess her causal contribution but also her moral accountability. According to this theory norm effects on causal selection are mediated by accountability judgments that are not only sensitive to the abnormality of behavior but also to mitigating factors, such as intentionality and knowledge of norms. Five experiments are presented that favor the accountability account over the two alternative theories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
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The standard approach guiding research on the relationship between categories and causality views categories as reflecting causal relations in the world. In the present study evidence is provided that the opposite direction also holds: Categories that have been acquired in previous learning contexts may influence subsequent causal learning. In three experiments with a total of 128 participants it is shown that identical causal learning experiences yield different attributions of causal capacity depending on the pre-existing categories that the learning exemplars are assigned to. There is a strong tendency to continue to use old conceptual schemes rather than switch to new ones even when the old categories are not optimal for predicting the new effect. This tendency is particularly strong when there is a plausible semantic link between the categories and the new causal hypothesis under investigation.
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States that current experimental research does not fully exploit the heuristic power of psychological theories of action. The paucity of experimental research guided by action-theoretical approaches is partly attributed to the impact of several metatheoretical positions according to which many elements of action theories are not amenable to experimental testing. Four theories of action are discussed, and experimental research suggested by each of these approaches is illustrated. Typical problems arising when complex theories are tested empirically are also considered. (English abstract) (4 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
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People seamlessly generate moral intuitions about a wide range of events they observe, but to date the cognitive processes underlying this competency are poorly understood. We propose that our moral intuitions are grounded in force-dynamic intuitions. We show how the evaluation of entities engaged in schematized interactions can be predicted from specific force-dynamic properties of those interactions, and we point out how these evaluative tendencies relate to our moral norm of not interfering with others' interests.
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Causal Bayes nets capture many aspects of causal thinking that set them apart from purely associative reasoning. However, some central properties of this normative theory routinely violated. In tasks requiring an understanding of explaining away and screening off, subjects often deviate from these principles and manifest the operation of an associative bias that we refer to as the richget- richer principle. This research focuses on these two failures comparing tasks in which causal scenarios are merely described (via verbal statements of the causal relations) versus experienced (via samples of data that manifest the intervariable correlations implied by the causal relations). Our key finding is that we obtained stronger deviations from normative predictions in the described conditions that highlight the instructed causal model compared to those that presented data. This counterintuitive finding indicate that a theory of causal reasoning and learning needs to integrate normative principles with biases people hold about causal relations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)
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Nach Hinweisen auf die Notwendigkeit des Einsatzes formaler Forschungsmethoden in der Psychologie wird der Frage nachgegangen, wie durch experimentelle Methoden psychologische Theorien überprüft werden können. Grundthese ist dabei, dass es in der Psychologie in der Regel um die Prüfung kausaler Theorien geht. Es wird gezeigt, dass statistische Methoden in systematischer Weise mit theoretisch begründeten experimentellen Designs kombiniert werden müssen, um Schlussfolgerungen auf kausale Vorgänge zuzulassen. Darüber hinaus wird diskutiert, wie man durch gezielte Überprüfung der Generalität von Theorien zu verbesserten Theorien mit erweiterem Geltungsbereich kommen kann.
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The strength of causal relations typically must be inferred on the basis of statistical relations between observable events. This article focuses on the problem that there are multiple ways of extracting statistical information from a set of events. In causal structures involving a potential cause, an effect and a third related event, the assumed causal role of this third event crucially determines whether it is appropriate to control for this event when making causal assessments between the potential cause and the effect. Three experiments show that prior assumptions about the causal roles of the learning events affect the way contingencies are assessed with otherwise identical learning input. However, prior assumptions about causal roles is only one factor influencing contingency estimation. The experiments also demonstrate that processing effort affects the way statistical information is processed. These findings provide further evidence for the interaction between bottom-up and top-down influences in the acquisition of causal knowledge. They show that, apart from covariation information or knowledge about mechanisms, abstract assumptions about causal structures also may affect the learning process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
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Studied the role of schematic knowledge in preschoolers' memory of familiar events. Focus was on determining preschool children's access to different types of event knowledge. Human Ss: 80 normal male and female West German preschool children (aged 4 yrs) (nursery school students); 80 normal male and female West German preschool children (aged 6 yrs) (nursery school students). Ss were presented with 4 picture stories involving different types of event knowledge. Free recall and visual recognition were used to assess memory of various aspects of the stories. Age differences were determined. (English abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
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Philosophische Annahmen im Zusammenhang mit der kognitiven Konstruktion von Kausalität in der Kognitiven Psychologie werden im Überblick erörtert. Dabei wird auf die folgenden Aspekte eingegangen: (1) assoziationistische Theorien (der Einfluss von D. Hume, psychologische Assoziationsthorien), (2) Kausallernen als kognitiver Prozess bzw. die Theorie der Kausalmodelle (kausale Priorität, die Einschätzung der Stärke von Kausalbeziehungen, die Wahl der Beschreibungsebene). Es wird unter Heranziehung von ausgewählten empirischen Befunden deutlich gemacht, dass die klassischen Theorien des kausalen Denkens, die davon ausgehen, dass Kausalwissen eine mentale Repräsentation objektiv in der Welt vorhandener Kausalzusammenhänge ist, nicht haltbar sind. Vielmehr bestimmen Vorannahmen, die vor jeglicher Beobachtung gemacht werden, entscheidend darüber, welchen Kausaleindruck Menschen in einer Situation erwerben.
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Studied the role of knowledge in the performance of memory tasks by young children, and assessed the hypothesis that a developmental shift in knowledge utilization occurs between 4 yrs and 6 yrs. Human subjects: 240 preschool and schoolage children (aged 4–6 yrs) (kindergartners). Ss were presented with 3 series of photographs representing events (Christmas, being sick, washing oneself, or the swimming pool), objects in categories (fruit, vehicles, animals, or buildings), or events and categories of unrelated objects. Ss were asked to sort the photographs into categories under 20 different sets of conditions. The organization and relationships of objects under free, structured, and instructional reproduction conditions were examined according to age group. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) and other statistical tests were used. (English abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
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Argues that a study reported by D. Shanks and F. Lopez (Memory & Cognition, 1996, Vol 24, 511-522), concluding that causal order does not influence cue selection, fails to meet four essential methodological criteria for testing whether and how causal order influences learning: (1) consistent interpretation by the participants of the learning situation in terms of directed cause-effect relations, (2) measurement of acquired causal knowledge, (3) manipulation of causal order, and (4) control of the statistical relations between cause and effect. It is suggested that several aspects of the reported results are explained by causal model theory but not by associative accounts, and that this study adds to evidence indicating that human contingency learning can indeed be guided by causal interpretation.
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A heavily disputed question of moral philosophy is whether spatial distance between agent and victim is normatively relevant for the degree of obligation to help strangers in need. In this research, we focus on the associated descriptive question whether increased distance does in fact reduce individuals' sense of helping obligation. One problem with empirically answering this question is that physical proximity is typically confounded with other factors, such as informational directness, shared group membership, or increased efficaciousness. In a series of 5 experiments, we show that distance per se does not influence people's moral intuitions when it is isolated from such confounds. We support our claims with both frequentist and Bayesian statistics. We relate these findings to philosophical arguments concerning the normative relevance of distance and to psychological theories linking distance cues to higher level social cognition. The effects of joint versus separate evaluation paradigms on moral judgments are also discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
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Die Beziehungen zwischen Begabung, Wissen und Lernen werden herausgearbeitet. Zunächst werden die drei Komponenten einzeln betrachtet. In Bezug auf das Lernen wird dessen Bereichsspezifität betont und der strikten Trennung basaler und akademischer Lernprozesse widersprochen. Auch Wissen, dem eine große Bedeutung für die Erklärung kognitiver Kompetenzen zugewiesen wird, wird als bereichsspezifisch ausgewiesen. Hinsichtlich der Rolle der Begabung ist eine Klärung der Beziehungen zwischen genetischen Anlagen und komplexen Kompetenzen bislang nicht möglich, da letztere vielfach trainierbar oder adaptiv modifizierbar sind. Aus den Beziehungen von Begabung, Wissen und Lernen werden Konsequenzen für die pädagogische Praxis in Form von Thesen abgeleitet, die sich auf die Fragen beziehen, ob Begabungsunterschiede durch entsprechenden Unterricht aufgehoben werden sollten und wie mit dem Spannungsfeld von spezifischem Wissenserwerb und der Förderung allgemeinen Lernen-Könnens umzugehen ist.
