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When is a conclusion worth deriving? A relevance-based analysis of indeterminate relational problems

Van der Henst, Jean-Baptiste and Politzer, Guy and Sperber, Dan (2001) When is a conclusion worth deriving? A relevance-based analysis of indeterminate relational problems. [Preprint]

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Abstract

When is a conclusion worth deriving? We claim that a conclusion is worth deriving to the extent that it is relevant in the sense of relevance theory (Sperber & Wilson, 1995). To support this hypothesis, we experiment with "indeterminate relational problems" where we ask participants what, if anything, follows from premises such as A is taller than B, A is taller than C. With such problems, the indeterminate response that nothing follows is common, and we explain why. We distinguish several types of determinate conclusions and show that their rate is a function of their relevance. We argue that by appropriately changing the formulation of the premises, the relevance of determinate conclusions can be increased, and the rate of indeterminate responses thereby reduced. We contrast these relevance-based predictions with predictions based on linguistic congruence.

Item Type:Preprint
Keywords:cognition, pragmatics, experimental psychology of reasoning, psycholinguistics, relevance, relevance theory, relational problems
Subjects:Psychology > Cognitive Psychology
Linguistics > Pragmatics
Psychology > Psychobiology
ID Code:1886
Deposited By: Sperber, Dan
Deposited On:14 Nov 2001
Last Modified:11 Mar 2011 08:54

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