Sloman S A
Department of Cognitive & Linguistic Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA.
Cogn Psychol. 1998 Feb;35(1):1-33. doi: 10.1006/cogp.1997.0672.
One enduring principle of rational inference is category inclusion: Categories inherit the properties of their superordinates. In five experiments, I show that people do not consistently apply this principle when evaluating categorical arguments involving natural categories and a single nonexplainable predicate such as all electronic equipment has parts made of germanium, therefore all stereos have parts made of germanium. Participants frequently did not apply the category inclusion rule despite affirming the relevant categorical relation (e.g., stereos are electronic equipment). They failed to apply the rule even when categories were universally quantified unambiguously. Instead, judgments tended to be proportional to the similarity between premise and conclusion categories. Neglect of category inclusion relations was observed using arguments concerning natural kinds, artifacts, and social kinds.
类别继承其上级类别的属性。在五个实验中，我表明，当人们评估涉及自然类别和单一不可解释谓词的分类论证时，他们并不始终如一地应用这一原则，例如“所有电子设备都有由锗制成的部件，因此所有立体声音响都有由锗制成的部件”。尽管参与者肯定了相关的类别关系（例如，立体声音响是电子设备），但他们经常不应用类别包含规则。即使类别被明确地普遍量化，他们也未能应用该规则。相反，判断往往与前提类别和结论类别之间的相似度成正比。在涉及自然种类、人工制品和社会种类的论证中，都观察到了对类别包含关系的忽视。
