Cue competition in causality judgments: The role of manner of information presentation

Abstract

College students rated the causal efficacy of elements X, A, and B of food compounds AX and BX in producing the allergic reaction of a hypothetical patient. Causal ratings were made for each food after subjects received all of the results of a 16-day allergy test. With both serial and simultaneous presentation of information, ratings of distinctive elements A and B diverged and ratings of common element X decreased as the difference between the correlation of AX and BX with the allergic reaction increased. These human diagnostic judgments closely correspond with stimulus selection effects observed in the conditioned responses of animals in associative learning studies. © 1993, Psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.