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Flexible use of recent information in causal and predictive judgments
- Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition
, 2002
"... Associative and statistical theories of causal and predictive learning make opposite predictions for situations in which the most recent information contradicts the information provided by older trials (e.g., acquisition followed by extinction). Associative theories predict that people will rely on ..."
Abstract
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Cited by 9 (4 self)
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Associative and statistical theories of causal and predictive learning make opposite predictions for situations in which the most recent information contradicts the information provided by older trials (e.g., acquisition followed by extinction). Associative theories predict that people will rely on the most recent information to best adapt their behavior to the changing environment. Statistical theories predict that people will integrate what they have learned in the two phases. The results of this study showed one or the other effect as a function of response mode (trial by trial vs. global), type of question (contiguity, causality, or predictiveness), and postacquisition instructions. That is, participants are able to give either an integrative judgment, or a judgment that relies on recent information as a function of test demands. The authors concluded that any model must allow for flexible use of information once it has been acquired. Learning to predict the events in our environment is critical for survival. Both humans and other animals are known to learn predictive and causal relations between the events in their environment, and the question of how they do it has preoccupied philosophers and psychologists for many years.

