{"pk":25704,"title":"Preferred Inferences in Causal Relational Reasoning:\nCounting Model Operations","subtitle":null,"abstract":"Interpreting causal relations plays an important role in everyday\nlife, for example in scientific inquiries and text comprehension.\nErrors in causal reasoning can be a recipe for disaster.\nDespite vast literature on the psychology of human causal reasoning,\nthere are few investigations into preferred inferences\nin relational three-term problems. Based on a previous formal\ninvestigation about relevant causal relations we develop a cognitive\nmodeling approach with mental models. The key principle\nfor this approach proves to be the prediction of preferred\ninferences by model operations and the process of sub model\nintegration. Subsequent experiments test preferred inferences,\nthe number of model operations, and if concrete or generic\nproblems make a difference in causal reasoning performance.\nImplications of the model are discussed.","language":"eng","license":{"name":"","short_name":"","text":null,"url":""},"keywords":[],"section":"Papers","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2jv8f9tp","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Marco","middle_name":"","last_name":"Ragni","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of Freiburg; Justus Liebig University","department":""},{"first_name":"Stephanie","middle_name":"","last_name":"Schwenke","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of Freiburg","department":""},{"first_name":"Christine","middle_name":"","last_name":"Otieno","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of Freiburg","department":""}],"date_submitted":null,"date_accepted":null,"date_published":"2015-01-01T18:00:00Z","render_galley":null,"galleys":[{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/25704/galley/15328/download/"}]}