Abstract
Six experiments concerned people's ability to estimate the degree and sign of covariation represented in a bivariate distribution of stimuli with which they had just been presented as a series of pairs of stimuli. The stimuli were pairs of numbers, pairs of lines of variable lengths, or word-line pairs. In the latter case, subjects were asked to think of the words in terms of either pleasantness or familiarity; hence, the covariation relationship was between the normative pleasantness or familiarity value of the word and a line of variable length. In the sixth experiment, subjects were presented with two word-line pairs and were asked to access the covariation of both simultaneously. In most cases, the estimates reflected the sign and degree of covariation of the stimuli quite well. The estimates did not reflect accurately the stimulus covariation when the stimuli were numerical and the sign of the correlation of the stimuli was negative. A distinction is made between intuitive and strategic processes in the assessment of covariation.
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This research was supported by Grant No. MH 37166 from the National Institute of Mental Health. The data were collected when the author was on the faculty at the State University of New York at Binghamton Dan Burns and David Samson helped with the data collection. Eugene Milener programmed the stimuli and supervised the data collection for Experiment 3. Richard Burright was a valued source of intellectual stimulation.
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Malmi, R.A. Intuitive covariation estimation. Mem Cogn 14, 501–508 (1986). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03202521
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03202521