Consistency Checking in Hypothesis Generation,
Abstract
Three experiments were performed to provide evidence that the generation of hypotheses in response to multiple data involves two independent cognitive processes. First, a candidate hypothesis is assumed to be retrieved or activated in memory in response to only part of the available data. This candidate hypothesis is then assumed to be checked for consistency against the remaining data. This latter process is called 'consistency checking'. Experiment 1 was performed to provide evidence that consistecny checking occurs during hypothesis generation. Subjects who retrieved and checked hypotheses for consistency required more time to generate a hypothesis than subjects who just retrieved hypotheses. Experiment 2 indicated that subjects performed a task analogous to the consistency checking process faster than subjects who retrieved and checked hypotheses for consistency. Experiment 3 was performed to provide evidence that consistency checking is a self-terminating process. Subjects' latencies depended upon the position of a disconfirming datum within a data set, supporting this conjecture. Although some of the predictions in experiment 1 were not supported, the results generally confirm the existence of a high-speed verification process in hypothesis generation. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 01, 1979
- Accession Number
- ADA072753
Entities
People
- Carol Manning
- Charles F. Gettys
- Stanley D. Fisher
- Suzanne Baca
- Tom Mehle
Organizations
- University of Oklahoma