Shanks D R
Mem Cognit. 1989 Jan;17(1):27-34. doi: 10.3758/bf03199554.
Two experiments illustrate the way in which competition between potential causes occurs when subjects are asked to judge the extent to which an action is the cause of an outcome. In the first experiment, it was found that introducing occurrences of the outcome in the absence of the action reduced causality judgments, but this effect was attenuated if these outcomes were signaled by another stimulus. In the second experiment, a delay between the action and the outcome reduced judgments, but this could be abolished by inserting a stimulus between the action and the outcome. The results are discussed in terms of a view of causality judgment that assumes that such judgments are based on associations between the mental representations of the action and the outcome.
两项实验说明了当要求受试者判断某一行为在多大程度上是某一结果的原因时，潜在原因之间的竞争方式。在第一个实验中，发现引入在没有该行为时出现的结果会降低因果关系判断，但如果这些结果由另一种刺激发出信号，这种影响就会减弱。在第二个实验中，行为与结果之间的延迟会降低判断，但通过在行为与结果之间插入一种刺激可以消除这种延迟。根据一种因果关系判断观点对结果进行了讨论，该观点假设此类判断基于行为和结果的心理表征之间的关联。
