Do all ducks lay eggs? The generic overgeneralization effect

Leslie, Sarah‐Jane; Khemlani, Sangeet; Glucksberg, Sam

doi:10.1016/j.jml.2010.12.005

Cited by 73 publications

(163 citation statements)

References 44 publications

(109 reference statements)

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“…3 In this way, conditionals should be interpreted quite differently than generic statements, such as Smokers get lung cancer, which are typically interpreted as tolerating exceptions (see, e.g., Cimpian, Brandone, & Gelman, 2010;Leslie, Khemlani, & Glucksberg, 2011). 4 Arguably, this phrase, if p then probably q, can refer to cases in which the conditional probability of q, given p, is less than 1, as well as cases where it is equal to 1.…”

Section: Experiments 1: Selecting Conditional Descriptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is the basic conditional probabilistic?

Goodwin¹

2014

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

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Nine experiments examined whether individuals treat the meaning of basic conditional assertions as deterministic or probabilistic. In Experiments 1-4, participants were presented with either probabilistic or deterministic relations, which they had to describe with a conditional. These experiments consistently showed that people tend only to use the basic if p then q construction to describe deterministic relations between antecedent and consequent, whereas they use a probabilistically qualified construction, if p then probably q, to describe probabilistic relations-suggesting that the default interpretation of the conditional is deterministic. Experiments 5 and 6 showed that when directly asked, individuals typically report that conditional assertions admit no exceptions (i.e., they are seen as deterministic). Experiments 7-9 showed that individuals judge the truth of conditional assertions in accordance with this deterministic interpretation. Together, these results pose a challenge to probabilistic accounts of the meaning of conditionals and support mental models, formal rules, and suppositional accounts.

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Section: Experiments 1: Selecting Conditional Descriptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is the basic conditional probabilistic?

Goodwin¹

2014

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

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“…Sangeet Khemlani, Sam Gluckberg and I investigated precisely this question (Leslie, Khemlani & Glucksberg, 2011). In particular, we were interested to learn whether adults would ever accept universals such as "all ducks lay eggs," despite knowing that, e.g., male ducks do not lay eggs.…”

Section: Defaulting To the Genericmentioning

confidence: 99%

Generics Articulate Default Generalizations

Leslie¹

2012

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Generic sentences express generalizations about kinds, such as "tigers are striped," "ducks lay eggs," and "ticks carry Lyme disease." I present and review emerging evidence from adults and children that suggests that generics articulate cognitively default generalizations-i.e., they express basic, early-developing generalizations concerning kinds. In contrast, quantified statements articulate cognitively more sophisticated and taxing generalizations. Further evidence suggests that generic generalizations don't depend solely on information about prevalence. Instead, these fundamental generalizations are sensitive to a number of content-based factors, such as whether the property in question is dangerous or otherwise striking, or is an essential or characteristic property of the kind. This suggests that our most basic means of forming inductive generalizations is sensitive to rich, content-based factors.

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“…Thus when a brief textual context was provided prior to the judgments then only the mutable statements were affected by the modifier. Leslie, Khemlani and Glucksberg (2011) have shown that generics are often considered true, even when universally quantified, an effect they call the Generic Overgeneralization Effect. Our data on the modifier effect also support this result.…”

Section: The Modifier Effect In Genericsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As Leslie et al (2011) also reported, it is very hard to convince people of the unacceptability of applying universal quantifiers to generic statements that are subject to counterexamples.…”

Section: The Modifier Effect In Genericsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Generics as reflecting conceptual knowledge

Hampton¹

2012

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Generics are proposed to reflect the content of the conceptual system, whose prototype structure and vague boundaries make an unreliable basis for traditional treatments of truth and logic. Examples from the psychological literature are used to illustrate the relation between generics, similarity-based reasoning and concepts.Statements that we make about the world are generic statements (including this one). Although we may state them with confidence, and we may be taken to be telling the truth by our listeners, yet if interpreted as expressing a universal truth, then they may very likely be false.Our knowledge of the world depends on an informational structure that is constructed from individual concept representations. These representations themselves contain or point to information that is considered germane and relevant to an understanding and familiarity with that concept. Such information includes fundamental or ontological features, such as that water is H 2 O and a liquid, but also information about the common or typical form that exemplars of the concept may take (ice, steam, fog), and any other information that it is important for someone to know (water freezes at zero degrees Celsius).One method that psychologists have used to explore conceptual contents is the "feature listing" task. Hampton (1979) developed an elaborated version of this task, aimed at making explicit the conceptual content underlying the meaning of some familiar category names such as Fruits, Sports and Vehicles. Participants were interviewed and asked seven different

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Do all ducks lay eggs? The generic overgeneralization effect

Cited by 73 publications

References 44 publications

Is the basic conditional probabilistic?

Is the basic conditional probabilistic?

Generics Articulate Default Generalizations

Generics as reflecting conceptual knowledge

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