The Negations of Conjunctions, Conditionals, and Disjunctions
Abstract
How do reasoners understand and formulate denials of compound assertions, such as conjunctions and disjunctions? A theory based on mental models postulates that individuals enumerate models of the various possibilities consistent with the assertions. It therefore predicts a novel interaction: in affirmations, conjunctions,A and B, which refer to one possibility, should be easier to understand than disjunctions, A or B, which refer to more than one possibility; in denials conjunctions, not (A and B), which refer to more than one possibility, should be harder to understand than disjunctions not (A or B), which do not. Conditionals are ambiguous and they should be of intermediate difficulty. Experiment 1 corroborated this trend with a task in which the participants selected which possibilities were consistent with assertions, such as: Bob denied that he wore a yellow shirt and he wore blue pants on Tuesday. Experiment 2 likewise showed that participants' own formulations of verbal denials yielded the same trend in which denials of conjunctions were harder than denials of conditionals,which in turn were harder than denials of disjunctions.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 03, 2014
- Accession Number
- ADA619029
Entities
People
- Isabel Orenes
- P. N. Johnson-laird
- Sangeet Khemlani
Organizations
- United States Naval Research Laboratory