How People Interpret an Uncertain If

Fugard, Andrew J.B.; Pfeifer, Niki; Mayerhofer, Bastian; Kleiter, Gernot D. (2009): How People Interpret an Uncertain If. 8th Workshop on Uncertainty Processing, 2009, Liblice, Czech Republic.

Abstract

Conditionals are central to inference. Before people can draw inferences about a natural language conditional, they must interpret its meaning. We investigated interpretation of uncertain conditionals using a probabilistic truth table task, focussing on (i) conditional event, (ii) material conditional, and (iii) conjunction interpretations. The order of object (shape) and feature (color) in each conditional's antecedent and consequent was varied between participants. The conditional event was the dominant interpretation, followed by conjunction, and took longer to process than conjunction (mean difference 500 ms). Material conditional responses were rare. The proportion of conditional event responses increased from around 40% at the beginning of the task to nearly 80% at the end, with 55% of participants showing a qualitative shift of interpretation. Shifts to the conditional event occurred later in the feature-object order than in the object-feature order. We discuss the results in terms of insight and suggest implications for theories of interpretation.

• Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
• Published in: Kroupa, T. and Vejnarova, J. (eds.) . (2009): Proceedings of the 8th Workshop on Uncertainty Processing. Liblice, Czech Republic: pp. 80-91
• Faculties: Philosophy, Philosophy of Science and Religious Science > Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy (MCMP); Philosophy, Philosophy of Science and Religious Science > Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy (MCMP) > Philosophy of Science; Philosophy, Philosophy of Science and Religious Science > Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy (MCMP) > Philosophy of Mind
• Subjects: 100 Philosophy and Psychology > 100 Philosophy; 100 Philosophy and Psychology > 150 Psychology
• Place of Publication: Liblice, Czech Republic
• Language: English