{"pk":32960,"title":"Modeling an Experimental Study of Explanatory Coherence","subtitle":null,"abstract":"The problem of evaluating explanatory hypotheses is to choose the hypothesis or theory that best accounts for, or explains, the given evidence. Thagard (e.g.. 1989) and Ranney (in press; Ranney & Thagard, 1988) describe a theory of explanatory coherence intended to account for a variety of explanatory evaluations; this theory has been implemented in a coimectionist computer model, ECHO. In this study, we examine three questions regarding the relationship between human explanatory reasoning and echo's explanatory evaluations: Does E C H O predict subjects' evaluations of interrelated propositions? Are local temporal order differences (not explicitly modeled by ECHO) important to the subjects? Does E C H O predict subjects' inflectional reasoning? W e found that subjects often entertain competing hypodieses as nonexclusive and presume an implied backing for certain (superordinate) hypotheses. These tendencies were modeled in E C H O by assigning a fraction of data priority (usually reserved for evidence) to the superordinate hypotheses. In simi, the E C HO model helps to interpret subjects' reasoning patterns, and shows continued potential for simulating explanatory coherence processes.","language":"eng","license":{"name":"","short_name":"","text":null,"url":""},"keywords":[],"section":"Poster Presentations","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/72t7v1zs","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Patricia","middle_name":"","last_name":"Schank","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of California, Berkeley","department":""},{"first_name":"Michael","middle_name":"","last_name":"Ranney","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of California, Berkeley","department":""}],"date_submitted":null,"date_accepted":null,"date_published":"1991-01-01T18:00:00Z","render_galley":null,"galleys":[{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/32960/galley/24021/download/"}]}