Conditional reasoning with narrative contexts: the role of semantic and pragmatic factors

Abstract

The main objective of this experiment is to determine in what way the subjects´s knowledge of the real world modulates their performance in a conditional reasoning task with narrative contexts, in line with previous experimental studies (Cheng & Holyoak, 1985 and Holyoak & Cheng, 1995) The empirical frequency (Valiña, Seoane, Gehring, Ferraces & Fernández-Rey, 1992; Valiña, Seoane, Martín, Fernández-Rey & Ferraces, 1992; Valiña, Seoane, Ferraces & Martín, 1996a, b) was manipulated. This refers to the frequency with which empirical relation expressed between the antecedent and the consequent of the premises on conditional arguments occurs in the real world. This relation could occur always (deterministic), sometimes (probabilistic) or there could be no specific relation between antecedent and consequent (without specific relation). In this respect, we consider the deterministic relation similar to a relation of empirical necessity (the relation expressed in the conditional statement always happens); while the probabilistic relation presents a character of empirical possibility (which only happens sometimes in the real world).