Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, 3720 Walnut St., Solomon Lab Bldg., Philadelphia, PA 19104, United States.
Cogn Psychol. 2011 Aug;63(1):34-59. doi: 10.1016/j.cogpsych.2011.04.001. Epub 2011 Jun 2.
Negation, conjunction, and disjunction are major building blocks in the formation of concepts. This article presents a new model-based theory of these Boolean components. It predicts that individuals simplify the models of instances of concepts. Evidence corroborates the theory and challenges alternative accounts, such as those based on minimal descriptions, algebraic complexity, or structural invariance. A computer program implementing the theory yields more accurate predictions than these rival accounts. Two experiments showed that the numbers of models of a Boolean concept predict the difficulty of formulating a description of it. As mental models may also underlie deductive reasoning, the present theory integrates two hitherto separate areas of investigation.
否定、合取和析取是概念形成的主要构建块。本文提出了一种新的基于模型的这些布尔组件的理论。它预测个体简化概念实例的模型。证据证实了该理论，并挑战了替代解释，如基于最小描述、代数复杂性或结构不变性的解释。一个实现该理论的计算机程序比这些竞争理论产生更准确的预测。两项实验表明，布尔概念的模型数量可以预测对其进行描述的难度。由于心理模型可能也是演绎推理的基础，因此本理论整合了两个迄今为止独立的研究领域。
