The hazards of explanation: Overgeneralization in the face of exceptions

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

Volumn 142, Issue 4, 2013, Pages 1006-1014

  Williams, Joseph Jay ^a   Lombrozo, Tania ^a   Rehder, Bob ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

^b NEW YORK UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

Anomalies; Explanation; Generalization; Overgeneralization

Indexed keywords

ADULT; ARTICLE; CONCEPT FORMATION; HUMAN; LEARNING;

ADULT; CONCEPT FORMATION; GENERALIZATION (PSYCHOLOGY); HUMANS; LEARNING;

EID: 84887910075     PISSN: 00963445     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1037/a0030996     Document Type: Article

References (40)

1. Amsterlaw, J. A., & Wellman, H. M. (2006). Theories of mind in transition:A microgenetic study of the development of false belief understanding. Journal of Cognition and Development, 7, 139-172. doi:10.1207/s15327647jcd0702_1
2. Ashby, F. G., & Maddox, W. T. (2005). Human category learning. Annual Review of Psychology, 56, 149-178. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.56.091103.070217
3. Berthold, K., Röder, H., Knörzer, D., Kessler, W., & Renkl, A. (2011). The double-edged effects of explanation prompts. Computers in Human Behavior, 27, 69-75. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2010.05.025
4. Chi, M. T. H. (2000). Self-explaining: The dual processes of generating inference and repairing mental models. In R. Glaser (Ed.), Advances in Instructional Psychology: Vol. 5. Education design and cognitive sciences (pp. 161-238). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
5. Chi, M. T. H. (2009). Active-constructive-interactive: A conceptual framework for differentiating learning activities. Topics in Cognitive Science, 1, 73-105. doi:10.1111/j.1756-8765.2008.01005.x
6. Chi, M. T. H., de Leeuw, N., Chiu, M.-H., & LaVancher, C. (1994). Eliciting self-explanations improves understanding. Cognitive Science, 18, 439-477.
7. Chinn, C. A., & Brewer, W. F. (1993). The role of anomalous data in knowledge acquisition: A theoretical framework and implications for science instruction. Review of Educational Research, 63, 1-49. doi:10.3102/00346543063001001
8. Dienes, Z., Broadbent, D., & Berry, D. C. (1991). Implicit and explicit knowledge bases in artificial grammar learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 17, 875-887. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.17.5.875
9. Fiske, S. T., & Taylor, S. E. (1984). Social cognition. New York, NY:Random House.
10. Fonseca, B., & Chi, M. T. H. (2010). The self-explanation effect: A constructive learning activity. In R. Mayer & P. Alexander (Eds.), The handbook of research on learning and instruction (pp. 270-321). New York, NY: Routledge.
11. Friedman, M. (1974). Explanation and scientific understanding. Journal of Philosophy, 71, 5-19. doi:10.2307/2024924
12. Gentner, D. (2010). Bootstrapping the mind: Analogical processes and symbol systems. Cognitive Science, 34, 752-775. doi:10.1111/j.1551-6709.2010.01114.x
13. Gigerenzer, G. (2004). Fast and frugal heuristics: The tools of bounded rationality. In D. J. Koehler & N. Harvey (Eds.), Blackwell handbook of judgment and decision making (pp. 62-88). Malden, MA: Blackwell. doi:10.1002/9780470752937.ch4
14. Kaplan, A. S., & Murphy, G. L. (2000). Category learning with minimal prior knowledge. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 26, 829-846. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.26.4.829
15. Kitcher, P. (1981). Explanatory unification. Philosophy of Science, 48, 507-531. doi:10.1086/289019
16. Kitcher, P. (1989). Explanatory unification and the causal structure of the world. In P. Kitcher & W. C. Salmon (Eds.), Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Vol. 13. Scientific explanation (pp. 410-505). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
17. Kuhn, D., & Katz, J. (2009). Are self-explanations always beneficial? Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 103, 386-394. doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2009.03.003
18. Kuhn, T. (1962). The structure of scientific revolutions. Chicago, IL:University of Chicago Press.
19. Legare, C. H., Gelman, S. A., & Wellman, H. M. (2010). Inconsistency with prior knowledge triggers children's causal explanatory reasoning. Child Development, 81, 929-944. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01443.x
20. Lombrozo, T. (2006). The structure and function of explanations. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 10, 464-470. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2006.08.004
21. Lombrozo, T. (2012). Explanation and abductive inference. In K. J. Holyoak & R. G. Morrison (Eds.), Oxford handbook of thinking and reasoning (pp. 260-276), Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
22. Love, B. C. (2002). Comparing supervised and unsupervised category learning. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 9, 829-835. doi:10.3758/BF03196342
23. Malle, B. F. (2011). Attribution theories: How people make sense of behavior. In D. Chadee (Ed.), Theories in social psychology (pp. 72-95). Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
24. Master, A., Markman, E. M., & Dweck, C. S. (2012). Thinking in categories or along a continuum: Consequences for children's social judgments. Child Development, 83, 1145-1163. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2012.01774.x
25. Mathews, R. C., Buss, R. R., Stanley, W. B., Blanchard-Fields, F., Cho, J. R., & Druhan, B. (1989). Role of implicit and explicit processes in learning from examples: A synergistic effect. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 15, 1083-1100. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.15.6.1083
26. Matthews, P. G., & Rittle-Johnson, B. (2009). In pursuit of knowledge:Comparing self-explanations, concepts, and procedures as pedagogical tools. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 104, 1-21. doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2008.08.004
27. Meissner, C. A., & Memon, A. (2002). Verbal overshadowing: A special issue exploring theoretical and applied issues. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 16, 869-872. doi:10.1002/acp.928
28. Needham, D. R., & Begg, I. M. (1991). Problem-oriented training promotes spontaneous analogical transfer: Memory-oriented training promotes memory for training. Memory & Cognition, 19, 543-557. doi:10.3758/BF03197150
29. Reber, A. S. (1989). Implicit learning and tacit knowledge. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 118, 219-235. doi:10.1037/0096-3445.118.3.219
30. Risen, J. L., Gilovich, T., & Dunning, D. (2007). One-shot illusory correlations and stereotype formation. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33, 1492-1502. doi:10.1177/0146167207305862
31. Rittle-Johnson, B. (2006). Promoting transfer: The effects of direct instruction and self-explanation. Child Development, 77, 1-15. doi:10.1111/j .1467-8624.2006.00852.x
32. Schooler, J. W. (2002). Verbalization produces a transfer inappropriate processing shift. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 16, 989-997. doi:10.1002/acp.930
33. Shanks, D. R., & St. John, M. F. (1994). Characteristics of dissociable human learning systems. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 17, 367-395. doi:10.1017/S0140525X00035032
34. Siegler, R. S. (2002). Microgenetic studies of self-explanations. In N. Granott & J. Parziale (Eds.), Microdevelopment: Transition processes in development and learning (pp. 31-58). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511489709.002
35. Toth, J. P., Reingold, E. M., & Jacoby, L. L. (1994). Toward a redefinition of implicit memory: Process dissociations following elaborative processing and self-generation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 20, 290-303. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.20.2.290
36. Wellman, H. M., & Liu, D. (2007). Causal reasoning as informed by the early development of explanations. In A. Gopnik & L. Schulz (Eds.), Causal learning: Psychology, philosophy, and computation (pp. 261-279). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195176803.003.0017
37. Williams, J. J., & Lombrozo, T. (2010). The role of explanation in discovery and generalization: Evidence from category learning. Cognitive Science, 34, 776-806. doi:10.1111/j.1551-6709.2010.01113.x
38. Williams, J. J., & Lombrozo, T. (2013). Explanation and prior knowledge interact to guide learning. Cognitive Psychology, 66, 55-84. doi:10.1016/j.cogpsych.2012.09.002
39. Williams, J. J., Lombrozo, T., & Rehder, B. (2010). Why does explaining help learning? Insight from an explanation impairment effect. In S. Ohlsson & R. Catrambone (Eds.), Proceedings of the 32nd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 2906-2911). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
40. Williams, J. J., Lombrozo, T., & Rehder, B. (2011). Explaining drives the discovery of real and illusory patterns. In L. Carlson, C. Hölscher, & T. Shipley (Eds.), Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 1352-1357). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.