Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T14:44:06.809Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Omissions, conflations, and false dichotomies: Conceptual and empirical problems with the Barbey & Sloman account

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 October 2007

Gary L. Brase
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506-5302. [email protected]

Abstract

Both the theoretical frameworks that organize the first part of Barbey & Sloman's (B&S's) target article and the empirical evidence marshaled in the second part are marked by distinctions that should not exist (i.e., false dichotomies), conflations where distinctions should be made, and selective omissions of empirical results – within the very studies discussed – that create illusions of theoretical and empirical favor.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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

Brase, G. L. (2002a) Ecological and evolutionary validity: Comments on Johnson-Laird, Legrenzi, Girotto, Legrenzi, & Caverni's (1999) mental-model theory of extensional reasoning. Psychological Review 109: 722–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brase, G. L. (2002b) Which statistical formats facilitate what decisions? The perception and influence of different statistical information formats. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making 15: 381401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brase, G. L. & Barbey, A. K. (2006) Mental representations of statistical information. In: Advances in psychology research, vol. 41, ed Columbus, A., pp. 91113. Nova Science.Google Scholar
Brase, G. L., Cosmides, L. & Tooby, J. (1998) Individuation, counting, and statistical inference: The role of frequency and whole object representations in judgment under uncertainty. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 127: 321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brase, G. L., Fiddick, L. & Harries, C. (2006) Participant recruitment methods and statistical reasoning performance. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 59: 965–76.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chomsky, N. (1965) Aspects of the theory of syntax. MIT Press.Google Scholar
Cosmides, L. & Tooby, J. (2003) Evolutionary psychology: Theoretical foundations. In: Encyclopedia of cognitive science, ed Nadel, L., pp. 5464. Macmillan.Google Scholar
Crespi, L. P. (1942) Quantitative variation of incentive and performance in the white rat. American Journal of Psychology 55:467517.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crespi, L. P. (1944) Amount of reinforcement and level of performance. Psychological Review 51:341–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duchaine, B., Cosmides, L. & Tooby, J. (2001) Evolutionary psychology and the brain. Current Opinion in Neurobiology 11:225–30.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ermer, E., Cosmides, L. & Tooby, J. (2007) Functional specialization and the adaptationist program. In: The evolution of mind: Fundamental questions and controversies, ed Gangstead, S. & Simpson, J. Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Fodor, J. A. (1983) Modularity of mind. MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gigerenzer, G. & Hoffrage, U. (1999) Overcoming difficulties in Bayesian reasoning: A reply to Lewis and Keren (1999) and Mellers and McGraw (1999). Psychological Review 106:425–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoffrage, U., Gigerenzer, G., Krauss, S. & Martignon, L. (2002) Representation facilitates reasoning: What natural frequencies are and what they are not. Cognition 84:343–52.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tooby, J. & Cosmides, L. (2005) Conceptual foundations of evolutionary psychology. In: The handbook of evolutionary psychology, ed Buss, D. M., pp. 567. Wiley.Google Scholar
Tooby, J., Cosmides, L. & Barrett, H. C. (2005) Resolving the debate on innate ideas: Learnability constraints and the evolved interpenetration of motivational and conceptual functions. In: The innate mind: Structure and content, ed Carruthers, P., Laurence, S & Stich, S. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar