Conjunctive bias in memory representations of logical connectives

Abstract

The paper presents the conjunctive bias in memory - a novel phenomenon that helps to clarify representations of logical connectives. The conjunctive bias is a tendency toward more accurate recall and recognition of conjunctive forms than of forms based on other logical connectives and a tendency to recall and recognize other logical forms as if they were conjunctions. Three experiments, in which participants' memory representations associated with different logical connectives were examined, were conducted to test the conjunctive bias hypothesis. In Experiment 1, participants learned picture-proposition pairs involving either conjunctions or disjunctions and then had to recall each proposition when cued with its picture. In Experiments 2 and 3, recognition memory for conjunctions, disjunctions, and conditionals was examined with an old/new recognition procedure. The findings of these experiments provide evidence for the conjunctive bias. Furthermore, the results of Experiment 3 suggest that conjunctive bias is not simply a pragmatically caused preference for conjunctions. The discussion focuses on the implications of these findings for current theories of deductive reasoning.