Skip to main content

Formalizing Human Uncertain Reasoning with Default Rules: A Psychological Conundrum and a Pragmatic Suggestion

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Symbolic and Quantitative Approaches to Reasoning with Uncertainty (ECSQARU 2001)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 2143))

Abstract

The suppression of Modus Ponens by the introduction of a second conditional is introduced as a result relevant both to psychologists and to AI researchers interested in default reasoning. Some psychological considerations on the explanation of this effect, together with (a) their tentative formalisation within the framework of default logic, and (b) recent experimental results from the present authors, lead to the conclusion that our understanding of ordinary human default reasoning would benefit from considering the existence of a specific class of conditional statements, with the pragmatic status of “precondition-als”.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Evans, J. St.B.T., Newstead, S. E., & Byrne, R. M. J.: Human Reasoning. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates (1993)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Reiter, R.: A logic for default reasoning. Artificial Intelligence 13 (1980) 81–132

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  3. Smith, E. E., Langston, C, & Nisbett, R.: The case for rules in reasoning. Cognitive Science 16 (1992) 1–40

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Byrne, R. M. J.: Suppressing valid inferences with conditionals. Cognition 31 (1989) 61–83

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Bonnefon, J.F., & Hilton, D. J.: The suppression of Modus Ponens as a case of pragmatic preconditional reasoning. Accepted subject to revision, Thinking & Reasoning (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Liu, I., Lo, K., & Wu, J.: A probabilistic interpretation of “If-then”. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 49A (1996) 828–844

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Politzer, G. & Bourmeau, G.: Deductive reasoning with uncertain conditionals. Manuscript submitted for publication (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Stevenson, R. J., & Over, D. E.: Deduction from uncertain premises. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 48A (1995) 613–643

    Google Scholar 

  9. Politzer, G.: Premise Interpretation in Conditional Reasoning. To appear in: D. Hardman and L. Macchi (Eds.): Reasoning and Decision Making: A Handbook. Chichester: Wiley (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Byrne, R. M. J., Espino, O., et Santamaria, C.: Counterexamples and the suppression of inferences. Journal of Memory and Language 40 (1999) 347–373

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Leddo, J., Abelson, R. P., & Gross, P. H.: Conjunctive explanations: When two reasons are better than one. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 47 (1984) 933–943

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. McClure, J. L., Lalljee, M., Jaspars, J., & Abelson, R. P.: Conjunctive explanations of success and failure: The effects of different types of causes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 56 (1989) 19–26

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. McClure, J. L., & Hilton, D. J.: For you can’t always get what you want: When preconditions are better explanations than goals. British Journal of Social Psychology 36 (1997) 223–240

    Google Scholar 

  14. McClure, J. L., & Hilton, D. J.: Are goals or preconditions better explanations? It depends on the question. European Journal of Social Psychology 28 (1998) 897–911.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2001 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Bonnefon, JF., Hilton, D.J. (2001). Formalizing Human Uncertain Reasoning with Default Rules: A Psychological Conundrum and a Pragmatic Suggestion. In: Benferhat, S., Besnard, P. (eds) Symbolic and Quantitative Approaches to Reasoning with Uncertainty. ECSQARU 2001. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 2143. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-44652-4_55

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-44652-4_55

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-42464-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-44652-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics