Year: 2001
Type: article
Abstract: Considerable evidence indicates that causal information provides a vital constraint on conceptual representation and coherence.We investigated the role of causal information as a constraint on similarity, exploiting an asymmetry between predictive causal reasoning (given the cause, predict the effect) and diagnostic causal reasoning (given the effect, diagnose the cause).This asymmetry allowed us to isolate the effects of causal understanding from the effects of sharing non-causal features.We found that judged similarity between two objects that are identical except for one feature was affected by whether that feature was a competing potential cause of an effect or an effect of a common cause.
Institution: University of California, Los Angeles
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: National Science Foundation
OpenAlex ID: W2778610601