Department of Psychology, Experimental Neuropsychology Unit, Saarland University, D-66041 Saarbrücken, Germany.
Department of Psychology, Experimental Neuropsychology Unit, Saarland University, D-66041 Saarbrücken, Germany.
Conscious Cogn. 2018 Aug;63:11-28. doi: 10.1016/j.concog.2018.06.002. Epub 2018 Jun 15.
Illusory correlations (IC) are the perception of covariation, where none exists. For example, people associate majorities with frequent behavior and minorities with infrequent behavior even in the absence of such an association. According to the information loss account, ICs result from greater fading of infrequent group-behavior combinations in memory. We conducted computer simulations based on this account which showed that ICs are expected under standard conditions with skewed category frequencies (i.e. 2:1 ratio for positive and negative descriptions), but not under conditions with equated category frequencies (i.e. 1:1 ratio for positive and negative descriptions). Contrary to these simulations, our behavioral experiments revealed an IC under both conditions, which did not decrease over time. Thus, information loss alone is not sufficient as an explanation for the formation of ICs. These results imply that negative items contribute to ICs not only due to their infrequency, but also due to their emotional salience.
错觉相关（Illusory Correlations，IC）是指感知到不存在的共变关系。例如，即使在没有这种关联的情况下，人们也会将多数与频繁的行为联系起来，将少数与不频繁的行为联系起来。根据信息丢失理论，IC 是由于记忆中不频繁的群体行为组合的衰退程度更大所致。我们根据这一理论进行了计算机模拟，结果表明，在类别频率偏斜（即正、负描述的比例为 2:1）的标准条件下，IC 是可以预期的，但在类别频率相等（即正、负描述的比例为 1:1）的条件下则不然。与这些模拟结果相反，我们的行为实验在这两种情况下都发现了 IC，并且它不会随着时间的推移而减少。因此，信息丢失本身不足以解释 IC 的形成。这些结果表明，负项不仅由于其出现频率较低，而且由于其情绪显著性，也会导致 IC 的形成。
