On the mental representation of conditional sentences

The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. A, Human Experimental Psychology
J S EvansStephen E Newstead

Abstract

Four experiments are reported which attempt to externalize subjects' mental representation of conditional sentences, using novel research methods. In Experiment 1, subjects were shown arrays of coloured shapes and asked to rate the degree to which they appeared to be true of conditional statements such as "If the figure is green then it is a triangle". The arrays contained different distributions of the four logically possible cases in which the antecedent or consequent is true or false: TT, TF, FT, and FF. For example, a blue triangle would be FT for the conditional quoted above. In Experiments 2 to 4, subjects were able to construct their own arrays to make conditional either true or false with any distribution of the four cases they wished to choose. The presence and absence of negative components was varied, as was the form of the conditional, being either "if then" as above or "only if": "The figure is green only if it is a triangle". The first findings was that subjects represent conditional in fuzzy way: conditional that include some counter-example TF cases (Experiment 1) may be rated as true, and such cases are often included when subjects construct an array to make the rule true (Experiments 2 to 4). Other findings in...Continue Reading

References

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Citations

Feb 1, 1998·Trends in Cognitive Sciences·C M Wharton, J Grafman
Mar 11, 2017·The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology : QJEP·Moyun Wang, Xinyun Yao
Aug 22, 2002·The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. A, Human Experimental Psychology·Simon J HandleyCatherine Harper
Nov 8, 2002·The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. A, Human Experimental Psychology·Masasi Hattori
Dec 17, 2008·The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology : QJEP·Jonathan St B T EvansDavid Over
Sep 14, 2007·The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology : QJEP·Paolo CherubiniStefano Minelli
Sep 20, 2000·The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. A, Human Experimental Psychology·K C KlauerB Naumer
Sep 8, 2001·The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. A, Human Experimental Psychology·J S EvansC N Harper
Sep 15, 2017·Europe's Journal of Psychology·Dean J Wilkinson, Laura S Caulfield
Jun 19, 2004·The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. A, Human Experimental Psychology·Vladimir Sloutsky, Yevgeniya Goldvarg
Sep 10, 2003·The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. A, Human Experimental Psychology·Walter SchroyensSimon Handley

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