The study shows that pragmatics affects probabilistic reasoning. In particular, we investigated the Lawyer-Engineer problem (by Tversky and Kahneman) that has an evident heterogeneous structure in that the base rate is in the form of a percentage while the individuating information is in the form of a description. Our hypothesis was that the participants stop their reflection after they have worked out a typicality value of their own because they think that, in exploiting the description , they have fulfilled their task, in accordance with the theoretical framework of Sperber and Wilson's relevance theory. Three main conclusions can be drawn from the experiments, that compare the relevance-based explanation of performance, the integration of information and the representativeness explanation.
Politzer, G., Macchi, L. (2005). The representation of the task: The case of the Lawyer-Engineer. In V. Girotto, P.N. Johnson-Laird (a cura di), The shape of reason. Essays in honor of Paolo Legrenzi (pp. 119-135). New York : Psychology Press.
The representation of the task: The case of the Lawyer-Engineer
MACCHI, LAURA
2005
Abstract
The study shows that pragmatics affects probabilistic reasoning. In particular, we investigated the Lawyer-Engineer problem (by Tversky and Kahneman) that has an evident heterogeneous structure in that the base rate is in the form of a percentage while the individuating information is in the form of a description. Our hypothesis was that the participants stop their reflection after they have worked out a typicality value of their own because they think that, in exploiting the description , they have fulfilled their task, in accordance with the theoretical framework of Sperber and Wilson's relevance theory. Three main conclusions can be drawn from the experiments, that compare the relevance-based explanation of performance, the integration of information and the representativeness explanation.
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