Geänderte Inhalte

The question how agent and patient roles are assigned to causal participants has largely been neglected in the psychological literature on force dynamics. Based on the linguistic theory of Dowty (1991), we propose that agency is a prototype concept. We adapted Dowty's theory to account for scenarios showing physical interactions. In the standard Michotte launching scenario the ball entering the scene is usually assigned the agent role, whereas the ball that is being launched is viewed as the patient. We showed in two experiments that agency intuitions were moderated by manipulations of the context prior to the launching event. Altering features such as relative movement, sequence of visibility, and self-propelled motion tended to increase agency attributions to the patient relative to the standard scenario. We suspect that shifts in figure-ground perceptions, and intuitions about characteristics of interventions may be the overarching reason for the efficacy of the tested criteria.

Whereas the traditional normative benchmark for diagnostic reasoning from effects to causes is provided by purely statistical norms, we here approach the task from the perspective of rational causal inference. The core feature of the presented model is the assumption that diagnostic inferences are constrained by hypotheses about the causal texture of the domain. As a consequence, the model's predictions systematically deviate from classical, purely statistical norms of diagnostic inference. In particular, the analysis reveals that diagnostic judgments should not only be influenced by the probability of the cause given the effect, but also be systematically affected by the predictive relation between cause and effect. This prediction is tested in three studies. The obtained pattern of diagnostic reasoning is at variance with the traditional statistical norm but consistent with a model of rational causal inference.