Rationality In An Uncertain World: Essays In The Cognitive Science Of Human Understanding

Mike Oaksford and Nick Chater

ISBN 10: 0863775349 / ISBN 13: 9780863775345

Published by Psychology Press Ltd, 1998

About this Item

Type: Book Small address label inside cover.

Seller Inventory # 050619

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Rationality In An Uncertain World: Essays In The Cognitive Science Of Human Understanding
• Publisher: Psychology Press Ltd
• Publication Date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0863775349
• ISBN 13: 9780863775345
• Binding: Cloth
• Edition: First Edition.
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: No d/j as Published
• Weight: 25 ounces
• Seller catalogs:
  • PSYCHOLOGY

About this title

Synopsis

This book brings together an influential sequence of papers that argue for a radical re-conceptualisation of the psychology of inference, and of cognitive science more generally. The papers demonstrate that the thesis that logic provides the basis of human inference is central to much cognitive science, although the commitment to this view is often implicit. They then note that almost all human inference is uncertain, whereas logic is the calculus of certain inference. This mismatch means that logic is not the appropriate model for human thought. Oaksford and Chater's argument draws on research in computer science, artificial intelligence and philosophy of science, in addition to experimental psychology. The authors propose that probability theory, the calculus of uncertain inference, provides a more appropriate model for human thought. They show how a probabilistic account can provide detailed explanations of experimental data on Wason's selection task, which many have viewed as providing a paradigmatic demonstration of human irrationality. Oaksford and Chater show that people's behaviour appears irrational only from a logical point of view, whereas it is entirely rational from a probabilistic perspective. The shift to a probabilistic framework for human inference has significant implications for the psychology of reasoning, cognitive science more generally, and forour picture of ourselves as rational agents.

About the Author

Nick Chater, Mike Oaksford