Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T18:38:33.819Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Confirming confirmation bias

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2010

P. Pollard
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Plymouth Polytechnic, Plymouth, Devon PL4

Abstract

Image of the first page of this content. For PDF version, please use the ‘Save PDF’ preceeding this image.'
Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abelson, R. P. & Reich, C. M. (1969) Implication modules: A method for extracting meaning from input sentences. First International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Washington, D.C., p. 41. [taHEK]Google Scholar
Adams, E. (1975) The logic of conditionals: An application of probability theory to deductive logic. Reidel. [MB-H]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bar-Hillel, Y., ed. (1965) Logic, methodology, and philosophy of science. North-Holland. [taHEK]Google Scholar
Bar-Hillel, Y (1980) The base rate fallacy in probability judgments. Acta Psychologica 44: 211–33. [MB-H, PP]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beth, E. W. & Piaget, J. (1966) Mathematical Epistemology and Psychology. Reidel. [PNJ-L]Google Scholar
Bogdan, R. J. ed. (1982) Henry Kyburg, Jr. and Isaac Levi. Reidel. [WLH]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braine, M. D. S. (1978) On the relation between the natural logic of reasoning and standard logic. Psychological Review 85: 121. [JStBTE, PNJ-L]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broadbent, D. E. (1956) The concept of capacity and the theory of behaviour. In Information Theory, ed. Cherry, C.. Academic Press. [JD]Google Scholar
Bruner, J. S., Goodnow, J. J. & Austin, C. A. (1956) A study of thinking. John Wiley. [PP]Google Scholar
Carnap, R. (1950) The logical foundations of probability. Uisiversity of Chicago Press. [taHEK]Google Scholar
Chapman, L. J. & Chapman, J. P. (1967) Genesis of popular but erroneous psychodiagnostic observations. journal of Abnormal Psychology 73:193204. [PP]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chapman, L. J. (1969) Illusory correlation as an obstacle to the use of valid psychodiagnostic signs, journal of Abnormal Psychology 74:271–80. [PP]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chihara, C. & Kennedy, R. (1979) The Dutch book argument: Its logical flaws, its subjective sources. Philosophical Studies 36:1933. [rHEK]Google Scholar
Chisholm, B. (1976) Knowledge and belief: “;Dc dicto” and “de re”. Philosophical Studies 29:120. [LJC]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, L. J. (1977) The probable and the provable. Clarendon Press. [MB-H, LJC, taHEK]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, L. J. (1979) On the psychology of prediction: Whose is the fallacy? Cognition 7:385407. [MB-H, taHEK]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, L. J. (1980) Whose is the fallacy? Cognition 8:8992. [taHEK]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, L. J. (1981) Can human rationality be experimentally demonstrated? The Behavioral and Brain Sciences 4:317–31. [MB-H, JStBTE, PNJ-L, DK, taHEK]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De, Finetti B. (1973) Bayesianism: Its unifying role for both the foundations and the application. Proceedings of the 39th Session of the International Statistical Institute. [taHEK]Google Scholar
De, Finetti B. (1980) Foresight: Its logical laws, its subjective sources. In: Studies in subjective probability, ed. Kyburg, H. E. & Smokier, H., pp. 53118. Krieger. [taHEK]Google Scholar
Dempster, A. (1968) A generalization of Bayesian inference. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B, 205–47. [taHEK]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Descartes, B. (1931) The philosophical works. ed. Trans Haldane, E. S. & Boss, C. B. T.. Cambridge University Press. [LJC]Google Scholar
Doherty, M. E., Mynatt, C. B., Tweney, R. D. & Schiavo, M. D. (1979) Pseudodiagnosticity. Acta Psychologica 43:111–21. [RDT]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dorling, J. (1972) Bayesianism and the rationality of scientific inference. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 23:181–90. [JD]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dorling, J. (1979) Bayesian personalism, the methodology of scientific research programmes, and Duhem's problem. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 10:177–87. [JD]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dretske, F. (1981) Knowledge and the flow of information. MIT Press. [taHEK]Google Scholar
Dretske, F. (1983) Précis uf Dretske's knowledge and the flow of information. The Behavioral and Brain Sciences 6:5591. [taHEK]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dubins, L. & Savage, L. J. (1965) How to gamble if you must. McGraw- Hill. [taHEK]Google Scholar
Edwards, W. (1954) The theory of decision making. Psychological Bulletin 51:380417. [taHEK]CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Edwards, W. (1975) Comment. Journal of the American Statistical Association 70:291–93. [taHEK]Google Scholar
Einhorn, H. J. (1978) Confidence in judgment: The persistence of the illusion of validity. Psychological Review 85:395416. [taHEK]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Einhorn, H. J. (1980) Learning from experience and suboptimal rules in decision making. In: Cognitive processes in choice and decision behavior, ed. Wallsten, T. S., pp. 120. Erlbaum. [taHEK]Google Scholar
Einhorn, H. J. & Hogarth, B. M. (1981) Behavioral decision theory: Processes of judgment and choice. Annual Review of Psychology 32:5388. [taHEK]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellis, B. (1979) Rational belief systems. Blackwell. [taHEK]Google Scholar
Erickson, J. B. (1974) A set analysis of behavior in formal syllogistic tasks. In:Theories in cognitive psychology: The Loyola Symposium, ed. Solso, B. L.. Erlbaum. [PNJ-L]Google Scholar
Evans, J. St. B. T. (1977) Toward a statistical theory of reasoning. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 29:621–35. [PNJ-L]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, J. St. B. T. (1982) The psychology of deductive reasoning. Routledge & Kegan Paul. [JStBTE, RDT]Google Scholar
Falk, R. & Bar-Hillel, M. (1983) Probabilistic dependence between events. Two Years College Mathematics Journal, in press. [MB-H]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Falmagne, R. J. (ed.) (1975) Reasoning, representation, and process. Erlbaum. [taHEK]Google Scholar
Feyerabend, P. (1970) Against method. In: Studies in the philosophy of science, ed. Radner, M. & Winokur, S., pp. 17130. University of Minnesota Press. [taHEK]Google Scholar
Fischhoff, B. (1982) Debiasing. In: Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases, ed. Kahneman, D., Slovic, P. & Tversky, A.. Cambridge University Press. [MB-H]Google Scholar
Good, I. J. (1976) The Bayesian influence; or, How to sweep subjectivism under the carpet. In: Foundations of probability theory, statistical inference, and statistical theories of science, vol. 2. eds. Harper, W. L. & Hooker, C. A.. Reidel. [WLH]Google Scholar
Good, I. J. (1962) Subjective probability as a measure of a non-measurable set. In: Logic, methodology and philosophy of science, ed. Nagel, E., Suppes, P. & Tarski, A., 319–29. Stanford University Press. [taHEK]Google Scholar
Gray, C. W. (1976). The concept of dichotomous correlation. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 17:153–59. [PP]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grice, H. P. (1975) Logic and conversation. In: The logie of grammar, ed. Davidson, D. & Harman, C., pp. 6475. Dickenson. [JEA]Google Scholar
Griggs, R. A. (1983) The role of problem content in the selection task and THOG problem. In: Thinking and reasoning: Psychological approaches, ed. St, J.. Evans, B. T.. Routledge & Kegan Paul. [JStBTE, PP]Google Scholar
Griggs, R. A. & Cox, J. R. (1982) The elusive thematic-materials effect in Wason's selection task. British Journal of Psychology 73:407–20. [BDT]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guyote, M. J. & Sternberg, B. J. (1981) A transitive-chain theory of syllogistic reasoning. Cognitive Psychology 13:461525. [PNJ-L]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harper, W. L. (1982) Kyburg on direct inference. In: Henry Kyburg, Jr. and Isaac Levi, ed. Bogdan, R., pp. 97127. Reidel. [WLH]Google Scholar
Hempel, C. C. & Oppenheim, P. (1945) A definition of ‘degree of confirmation’. Philosophy of Science 12:98115. [taHEK]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henle, M. (1962) On the relation between logic and thinking. Psychological Review 69:366–78. [taHEK]CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Henle, M. (1978) Foreword. In: Human reasoning, ed. Revlin, B. & Mayer, B. E.. Winston. [PNJ-L]Google Scholar
Hintikka, J. (1965) Towards a theory of inductive generalization. In: Logic, methodology, and philosophy of science, ed. Bar-Hillel, Y., pp. 274–88. North-Holland. [taHEK]Google Scholar
Hogarth, B. M. (1981) Beyond discrete biases: Functional and dysfunctional aspects of judgmental heuristics. Psychological Bulletin 90:197217. [MB-H]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hume, D. (1888) A treatise of human nature. ed. Selby-Bigge, L. A.. Clarendon Press. [LJC]Google Scholar
Jeffrey, R. C. (1965) The logic of decision. McGraw-Hill. [taFIEK]Google Scholar
Jeffrey, R. C. (1974) Preference among preferences. Journal of Philosophy 71:377–91. [taHEK]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson-Laird, P. N. (1977) Reasoning with quantifiers. In: Thinking, ed. Johnson-Laird, P. N. & Wason, P. C., pp. 129–42. [taHEK]Google Scholar
Johnson-Laird, P. N. (1982) Ninth Bartlett Memorial Lecture: Thinking as a skill. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 34a: 129. [JStBTE, PNJ-L]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson-Laird, P. N. (In press) Mental models: Towards a cognitive science of language, injerence, and consciousness. Cambridge University Press/Harvard University Press. [PNJ-L]Google Scholar
Johnson-Laird, P. N. & Steedman, M. J. (1978) The psychology of syllogisms. Cognitive Psychology 10:6499. [PNJ-L]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson-Laird, P. N. & Wason, P. C. (1977) A theoretical analysis of insight into a reasoning task. In: Thinking, ed. Johnson-Laird, P. N. & Wason, P. C., pp. 143–57. [JD, taHEK]Google Scholar
Johnson-Laird, P. N. & Wason, P. C. (1977) Thinking: Readings in Cognitive Science. Cambridge University Press. [taHEK]Google Scholar
Johnson-Laird, P. N., Legrenzi, P. & Sonino, Legrenzi M. (1972) Reasoning and a sense of reality. Cognitive Psychology 1:134–48. [taHEK]Google Scholar
Kahneman, D. & Tversky, A. (1972a) On the psychology of prediction. Oregon Research Institute Bulletin 12, University of Oregon. [taHEK]Google Scholar
Kahneman, D. & Tversky, A. (1972b) Subjective probability: A judgment of representativeness. Cognitive Psychology 3:430–54. [taHEK]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kahneman, D. & Tversky, A. (1973) On the psychology of prediction. Psychological Review 80:237–51. [PP, SS, taHEK]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kahneman, D. & Tversky, A. (1979a) On the interpretation of intuitive probability: A reply to Jonathan Cohen. Cognition 7:409–11. [taHEK]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kahneman, D. & Tversky, A. (1979b) Intuitive prediction: Biases and corrective procedures. Management Sciences 12:313–27. [taHEK]Google Scholar
Keynes, J. M. (1921; 1952) A treatise on probability. Macmillan & Co. [taHEK]Google Scholar
Korner, S., ed. (1957) The Colston papers. Butterworth's Scientific Publications. [taHEK]Google Scholar
Krantz, D. H., Fong, C. T. & Nisbett, R. E. (forthcoming) Formal training improves the application of statistical heuristics to everyday problems. [REN]Google Scholar
Kuhn, T. S. (1962) The structure of scientific revolutions. University of Chicago Press. [taHEK]Google Scholar
Kyburg, H. E. Jr, (1961) Probability and the logic of rational belief. Wesleyan University Press. [taHEK]Google Scholar
Kyburg, H. E. Jr, (1974) The logical foundations of statistical inference. Reidel. [taHEK]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kyburg, H. E. Jr, (1978) Subjective probability. Journal of Philosophical Logic 7:15780. [rHEK]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kyburg, H. E. Jr, (1980) Acts and conditional probabilities. Theory and Decision 12:149–71. [rHEK]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kyburg, H. E. Jr, (1983a) Epistemology and inference. University of Minnesota Press. [taHEK]Google Scholar
Kyburg, H. E. Jr, (1983b) Theory and measurement. Cambridge University Press. [taHEK]Google Scholar
Levi, I. (1965) Deductive cogency in inductive inference. Journal of Philosophy 62:6877. [IL]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levi, I. (1967) Camnbling with truth. Knopf (reissued in 1973 by MIT). [IL]Google Scholar
Levi, I. (1974) On indeterminate probabilities. Journal of Philosophy 71:391418. [taHEK]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levi, I. (1976) Acceptance revisited. In: Local induction, ed. Bogdan, B., pp. 171. Reidel. [IL]Google Scholar
Levi, I. (1980a) The enterprise of knowledge. MIT Press. [IL, taHEK]Google Scholar
Levi, I. (1980b) On some fallacies committed by some research workers in psychology. [MB-H]Google Scholar
Levi, I. (1980c) Potential surprise: Its role in inference and decision making. In: Applications of inductive logic, ed. Cohen, L. J. & Hesse, M., pp. 127. Clarendon Press. [IL]Google Scholar
Lopes, L. L. (1979) Doing the impossible: A note on induction and the experience of randomness. Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin, Madison. [taHEK]Google Scholar
Lopes, L. L. (1981) Performing competently. The Behavioral and Brain Sciences 4:343–44. [MB-H]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lopes, L. L. (1982) Decision making in the short run. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory 7:377–85. [MB-H. taHEK]Google Scholar
Lyon, D. & Slovie, P. (1976) Dominance of accuracy information and neglect of base rates in probability estimation. Acta Psychologica 40:287–98. [taHEK, PP, SS]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mellor, D. H. (1971) The matter of chance. Cambridge University Press. [taHEK]Google Scholar
Mellor, D. H. (1980) Prospects for pragmatism. Cambridge University Press. [taHEK]Google Scholar
Miller, D. V. (1982) Conjectural knowledge: Popper's solution of the problem of induction. In: In pursuit of truth, ed. Levinson, P., pp. 1749. Humanities Press. [DM]Google Scholar
Mises, R. von (1957) Probability statistics and truth. George Allen and Unwin. [taHEK]Google Scholar
Mynatt, C. R., Doherty, M. E. & Twenety, B. D. (1977) Confirmation bias in a simulated research environment: An experimental study of scientific inference. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 29:8595. [taHEK]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mynatt, C. R., Doherty, M. E. & Tsvency, B. D. (1978) Consequences of confirmation and disconfirmation in a simulated research environment. Quarterly journal of Experimental Psychology 30:395406. [taHEK]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nagel, E., Suppes, P. & Tarski, A., eds. (1962) Logic, methodology and philosophy of science. Stanford Univeraity Press. [taHEK]Google Scholar
Newstead, S. E. & Griggs, H. A. (1982) Is “all” a fuzzy quantifier? Paper presented to th Experimental Psychology Society, Cambridge. [PP]Google Scholar
Nisbett, R. E. & Ross, L. (1980) Humnamm inference: Strategies and shortcomings of social judgment. Prentice-Hall. [MB-H, taHEK]Google Scholar
Nisbett, R. E., Borgida, E., Crandall, B., & Reed, H. (1982) Popular induction: Information is not necessarily informative. In: Judgemnent under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases, ed. Kahneman, D., Slovic, P. & Tversky, A., pp. 101–16. Cambridge University Press. [JEA]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nisbett, H. F., Krantz, D. H., Jepson, C. & Kimnda, Z. (forthcoming) The use of statistical heuristics in everyday inductive reasoning. [REN]Google Scholar
Phillips, L. D. (1983) A theoretical perspective on heuristics and biases in probalilistic thinking. In: Analyzing and aiding decision problems, ed. Humsphreys, P. C., Svenson, O. & Vari, A.. North Holland. In press. [MBH]Google Scholar
Pollard, P. (1982) Human reasoning: Some possible effects of availability. Cognition 12:6596. [JStBTE]CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Popper, K. R. (1957) The propensity interpretation of the calculus of probability and the quantum theory. In: The Coistom Papers. ed Korner, S., 6570. [taHEK]Google Scholar
Popper, K. R. (1959) The logic of scientific discocery. Hutchinson & Co. [taHEK]Google Scholar
Quine, W. V. O. (1960) Word and object. John Wiley & Sons. [taHEK]Google Scholar
Radner, M. & Winokur, S., eds. (1970) Studies in the philosophy of science. University of Minnesota Press. [taHEK]Google Scholar
Redhead, M. (1980) A Bayesian reconstruction of the methodology of scientific research programmes. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 11:341–47. [JD]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reichenbach, H. (1949) The theory of probability. University of California Press. [taHEK[Google Scholar
Revlin, H., Leirer, V., Yopp, H. & Yopp, R. (1980) The belief-bias effect in formal reasoning: The influence of knowledge on logic. Memory and Cognition 8:584–92. [RR]CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Russell, B. (1948) Human knowledge. Simon & Schuster. [taHEK]Google Scholar
Samuelson, P. A. (1963) Risk and uncertainty: A fallacy of large numbers. Scientia 98:108–13. [MB-H, taHEK]Google Scholar
Savage, L. J. (1954) The foundations of statistics. John Wiley & Sons. [taHEK]Google Scholar
Savage, L. J. (1966) Implications of personal probability for induction. Journal of Philosophy 58:593607. [taHEK]Google Scholar
Sehick, F. (1963) Consistency and rationality. Journal of Philosophy 60:453–62. [WLH, rHEK]Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. (1970) Collective choice and social welfare. Holden-Day. [TS]Google Scholar
Shafer, C. (1976) A mathematical theory of evidence. Princeton University Press. [taHEK]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Slovie, P., Fischhoff, B. & Liehtenstein, S. (1977) Behavioral decision theory. Annual Reviews of Psychology 28:139. [taHEK]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, C. A. B. (1961) Consistency in statistical inference and decision. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B 23:137. [taHEK]Google Scholar
Stich, S. & Nisbett, R. (1980) Justification and the psychology of human reasoning. Philosophy of Science 47:188202. [taHEK]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thagard, P. (1982) From the descriptive to the normative in psychology and logic. Philosophy of Science 49:2442. [REN]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thagard, P. & Nisbett, R. E. (1982) Variability and confirmation. Philosophical Studies, in press. [REN]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thagard, P. (1983) Rationality and charity. Philosophy of Science, forthcoming. [REN]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tversky, A. & Bar-Hillel, M. (1982) Risk: The long and the short. [MB-H]Google Scholar
Tversky, A. & Kahneman, D. (1973) Availability: A heuristic for judging frequency and probability. Cognitive Psychology 5:207–32. [taHEK]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tversky, A. & Kahneman, D. (1974) The belief in the ‘law of small numbers’. Psychological Bulletin 76:105–10. [taHEK]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tversky, A. & Kahneman, D. (1974) Judgement under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases. Science 185:1124–31. [taHEK]CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tversky, A. & Kahneman, D. (1977) Causal thinking in judgment under uncertainty. In: Basic problems in methodology and linguistics, ed. Butts, R. & Hintikka, J.. Reidel. [MB-H]Google Scholar
Tversky, A. & Kahneman, D. (1981) The framing of decisions and the psychology of choice. Science 211:453–58. [MB-H, taHEK]CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tversky, A. & Kahneman, D. (1982) Evidential impact of base rates. In: Judgement under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases, ed. Kahneman, D., Slovic, P. & Tversky, A., pp. 153–60. Cambridge University Press [DK]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tweney, R. D., Doherty, M. E. & Mynatt, C. R. (1982) Rationality and disconfirmation: Further evidence. Social Studies of Science 12:435–41. [RDT]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tweney, R. D., Doherty, M. E., Worner, W. J., Pliske, D. B., Mynatt, C. R., Gross, K. A. & Arkkelin, D. L. (1980) Strategies of rule discovery in an inference task. Quarterly journal of Experimental Psychology 32:109–23. [RDT]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wallsten, T. S., ed. (1980) Cognitive processes in choice and decision behavior. Erlbaum. [taHEK]Google Scholar
Wason, P. C. (1960) On the failure to eliminate hypotheses in a conceptual tacit. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 20:273–81. [JD, REN, taHEK, PP]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wason, P. C. (1968) On the failure to eliminate hypotheses – a second look. In: Thinking and reasoning, ed. Wason, P. C. & Johnson-Laird, P. N.. Penguin. [PP]Google Scholar
Wason, P. C. (1971) Problem solving and reasoning. British Medical Bulletin No. 3 (Cognitive Psychology) 206–10. [PP]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wason, P. C. (1977a) Self-contradictions. In: Thinking, ed. Johnson-Laird, P. N. & Wason, P. C., pp. 114–28. Cambridge University Press. [taHEK]Google Scholar
Wason, P. C. (1977b) On the failure to eliminate hypotheses … A second look. In: Thinking, ed. Johnson-Laird, P. N. & Wason, P. C., pp. 307–14. Cambridge University Press. [taHEK]Google Scholar
Wason, P. C. (1983) Realism and rationality in the selection task. In: Thinking and reasoning: Psychological approaches. ed. Evans, J. St. B. T.. Routledge & Kegan Paul. [JStBTE]Google Scholar
Wason, P. C. & Johnaon-Laird, P. N. (1972) Psychology of reasoning: Structure and content. Batsford/Harvard University Press. [PNJ-L]Google Scholar
Whitehead, A. N. & Russell, B. (1910; 1950) Principia Mathematica. Cambridge University Press. [taHEK]Google Scholar
Wolfenson, M. & Fine, T. (1982) Bayes-like decision making with upper and lower probabilities. Journal of the American Statistical Association 77:8088. [TS]CrossRefGoogle Scholar