Rational theories of diagnostic reasoning assume that the reasoner’s goal is to infer the conditional probability of a cause given an effect from the available data. Typically, diagnostic reasoning is modeled within a statistical inference framework, …
This chapter discusses diagnostic reasoning from the perspective of causal inference. The computational framework that provides the foundation for the analyses--probabilistic inference over graphical causal structures--can be used to implement …
How can heuristic strategies emerge from smaller building blocks? We propose Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC) as a computational solution to this problem. As a first proof of concept, we demonstrate how a heuristic decision strategy such as …
We investigated 4th-grade children's search strategies on sequential search tasks in which the goal is to identify an unknown target object by asking yes-no questions about its features. We used exhaustive search to identify the most efficient …
We investigate whether people rely on their causal intuitions to determine the predictive value or importance of cues. Our real-world data set consists of one criterion variable (child mortality) and nine cues (e.g., GDP per capita). We elicited …
What--if anything--can psychology and decision science contribute to risk management in financial institutions? The turmoils of recent economic crises undermine the assumptions of classical economic models and threaten to dethrone Homo oeconomicus, …
Our research examines the normative and descriptive adequacy of alternative computational models of diagnostic reasoning from single effects to single causes. Many theories of diagnostic reasoning are based on the normative assumption that inferences …
Whereas the traditional normative benchmark for diagnostic reasoning from effects to causes is provided by purely statistical norms, we here approach the task from the perspective of rational causal inference. The core feature of the presented model …
In deterministic causal chains the relations "A causes B" and "B causes C" imply that "A causes C". However, this is not necessarily the case for probabilistic causal relationships: A may probabilistically cause B, and B may probabilistically cause …