Author(s): Couto, Marta Barley de La Cueva ; Quelhas, Ana Cristina ; Byrne, Ruth M. J.
Date: 2017
Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.12/5370
Origin: Repositório do ISPA - Instituto Universitário
Project/scholarship: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/FCT/SFRH/SFRH%2FBD%2F68337%2F2010/PT; info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/FCT/5876/147228/PT;
Subject(s): Advice; Tips; Warnings; Conditionals; Reasoning
Two experiments examine how people interpret and reason about advice conditionals, such as tips, for example, “if you study more your grades will improve”, and warnings, for example, “if you stop exercising you will gain weight”. Experiment 1 showed that when participants reason about whether a tip or warning could be true in different situations, their judgments correspond to a biconditional or conditional interpretation on about half of all trials, but to an enabling or tautology interpretation on many others. Experiment 2 showed that participants make few modus ponens and tollens inferences from tips and warnings, and more modus ponens inferences from tips than warnings. The implications for alternative theories are discussed.
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)
