PP-2000-04: Stenning, Keith and van Lambalgen, Michiel (2000) Semantics as a foundation for psychology: a case study of Wason's selection task. [Report]
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Abstract
We review the various explanations that have been offered to account for
subjects' behaviour in Wason's famous selection task.
We argue that one element that is lacking is a good understanding of
subjects' semantics for the key expressions involved, and an understanding
of how this semantics is affected by the demands the task puts upon the
subject's cognitive system. We make novel proposals in these terms for
explaining the major content effects of deontic materials.
Throughout we illustrate with excerpts from tutorial dialogues which
motivate the kinds of analysis proposed. Our long term goal is an
integration of the various insights about conditional reasoning on offer
from different cognitive science methodologies. The purpose of this paper
is to try to draw the attention of logicians and semanticists to this
area, since we believe that empirical investigation of the cognitive
processes involved could benefit from semantic analyses.
Keyword(s): Conditionals, anaphora, psychology of reasoning, semantics
| Item Type: | Report |
|---|---|
| Report Nr: | PP-2000-04 |
| Series Name: | Prepublication (PP) Series |
| Year: | 2000 |
| Date Deposited: | 12 Oct 2016 14:36 |
| Last Modified: | 12 Oct 2016 14:36 |
| URI: | https://eprints.illc.uva.nl/id/eprint/31 |
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