Reasoning with Exceptive Conditionals: The case of ‘Except If’

• O. Espino ^[1] ; I. Sánchez-Curbelo ^[1] ; G.M. Ramírez ^[1]
  1. [1] Universidad de La Laguna

     Universidad de La Laguna

     San Cristóbal de La Laguna, España

     
• Localización: Psicológica: Revista de metodología y psicología experimental, ISSN-e 1576-8597, ISSN 0211-2159, Vol. 36, Nº 1, 2015, págs. 99-122
• Idioma: inglés
• Títulos paralelos:
  • Razonamiento con condicionales exceptivos: El caso de “excepto si’’
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo (pdf)
• Resumen
  • español

    En esta investigación presentamos una adaptación de la teoría de modelos mentales (Johnson-Laird & Byrne, 1991, 2002) que trata de explicar cómo las personas razonan con el condicional excepto si. Se realizaron dos experimentos que mostraron que el condicional exceptivo excepto si ejerce ciertos tipos de modulación semántica y determina las inferencias que los individuos elaboran en una tarea de inferencia (Experimento 1) y de tablas de verdad (Experimento 2). En el Experimento 1 encontramos que no hay diferencias entre el porcentaje de Modus Ponens y Modus Tollens en el condicional excepto si pero sí son significativas para el condicional si no, entonces. En el Experimento 2, los participantes seleccionaron más frecuentemente las posibilidades ‘A y no-B’ y ‘no-A y B’ que las posibilidades ‘A y B’ y ‘no-A y no-B’ en el condicional ‘B excepto si A’, mientras que con el condicional ‘B si no A’ y ‘si no A, B’ seleccionaron más frecuentemente la posibilidad ‘no-A y B’ que las otras posibilidades (‘A y no-B’, ‘A y B’, ‘no-A y no-B’). Las implicaciones de estos resultados se discuten en el contexto de las teorías psicológicas y lingüísticas recientes referentes al significado de excepto si.

  • English

    In this paper we outline a mental model theory (Johnson-Laird & Byrne, 1991, 2002) of reasoning about the conditional except if. We report two experiments showing that the exceptive conditional except if exerted certain forms of semantic modulation and determined the inferences that individuals draw in an inference task (Experiment 1) and in a truth table task (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1 we found that there were no reliable differences between the percentage of modus ponens and modus tollens with the conditional except if but that the differences were reliable with the conditional if not, then. In Experiment 2, participants selected the possibilities ‘A & not-B’ and ‘not-A & B’ more frequently than the possibilities ‘A & B’ and ‘not-A & not-B’ with the conditional ‘B except if A’, but they selected the possibility ‘not-A & B’ more frequently than other possibilities (‘A & not-B’, ‘A & B’, ‘not-A & not-B’) with the conditionals ‘B if not-A’ and ‘if not-A, B’. The implications of these results are discussed in the context of recent psychological and linguistic theories in respect of the meaning of except if

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