- Oxford Library of Psychology
- The Oxford Handbook of Causal Reasoning
- About the Editor
- Contributors
- Causal Reasoning: An Introduction
- Associative Accounts of Causal Cognition
- Rules of Causal Judgment: Mapping Statistical Information onto Causal Beliefs
- The Inferential Reasoning Theory of Causal Learning: Toward a Multi-Process Propositional Account
- Causal Invariance as an Essential Constraint for Creating a Causal Representation of the World: Generalizing the Invariance of Causal Power
- The Acquisition and Use of Causal Structure Knowledge
- Formalizing Prior Knowledge in Causal Induction
- Causal Mechanisms
- Force Dynamics
- Mental Models and Causation
- Pseudocontingencies
- Singular Causation
- Cognitive Neuroscience of Causal Reasoning
- Visual Impressions of Causality
- Goal-Directed Actions
- Planning and Control
- Reinforcement Learning and Causal Models
- Causation and the Probability of Causal Conditionals
- Causal Models and Conditional Reasoning
- Concepts as Causal Models: Categorization
- Concepts as Causal Models: Induction
- Causal Explanation
- Diagnostic Reasoning
- Inferring Causal Relations by Analogy
- Causal Argument
- Causality in Decision-Making
- Intuitive Theories
- Space, Time, and Causality
- Causation in Legal and Moral Reasoning
- The Role of Causal Knowledge in Reasoning About Mental Disorders
- Causality and Causal Reasoning in Natural Language
- Social Attribution and Explanation
- The Development of Causal Reasoning
- Causal Reasoning in Non-Human Animals
- Causal Cognition and Culture
- Index
Abstract and Keywords
Attribution processes appear to be an integral part of human visual perception, as low-level inferences of causality and intentionality appear to be automatic and are supported by specific brain systems. However, higher-order attribution processes use information held in memory or made present at the time of judgment. While attribution processes about social objects are sometimes biased, there is scope for partial correction. This chapter reviews work on the generation, communication, and interpretation of complex explanations, with reference to explanation-based models of text understanding that result in situation models of narratives. It distinguishes between causal connection and causal selection, and suggests that a factor will be discounted if it is not perceived to be connected to the event and backgrounded if it is perceived to be causally connected to that event, but is not selected as relevant to an explanation. The final section focuses on how interpersonal explanation processes constrain causal selection.
Keywords: attribution, causality, intentionality, memory, communication
Department of Psychology University of Toulouse Toulouse, France
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- Oxford Library of Psychology
- The Oxford Handbook of Causal Reasoning
- About the Editor
- Contributors
- Causal Reasoning: An Introduction
- Associative Accounts of Causal Cognition
- Rules of Causal Judgment: Mapping Statistical Information onto Causal Beliefs
- The Inferential Reasoning Theory of Causal Learning: Toward a Multi-Process Propositional Account
- Causal Invariance as an Essential Constraint for Creating a Causal Representation of the World: Generalizing the Invariance of Causal Power
- The Acquisition and Use of Causal Structure Knowledge
- Formalizing Prior Knowledge in Causal Induction
- Causal Mechanisms
- Force Dynamics
- Mental Models and Causation
- Pseudocontingencies
- Singular Causation
- Cognitive Neuroscience of Causal Reasoning
- Visual Impressions of Causality
- Goal-Directed Actions
- Planning and Control
- Reinforcement Learning and Causal Models
- Causation and the Probability of Causal Conditionals
- Causal Models and Conditional Reasoning
- Concepts as Causal Models: Categorization
- Concepts as Causal Models: Induction
- Causal Explanation
- Diagnostic Reasoning
- Inferring Causal Relations by Analogy
- Causal Argument
- Causality in Decision-Making
- Intuitive Theories
- Space, Time, and Causality
- Causation in Legal and Moral Reasoning
- The Role of Causal Knowledge in Reasoning About Mental Disorders
- Causality and Causal Reasoning in Natural Language
- Social Attribution and Explanation
- The Development of Causal Reasoning
- Causal Reasoning in Non-Human Animals
- Causal Cognition and Culture
- Index
