Exploring the Influence of Particle Filter Parameters on Order Effects in Causal Learning

Joshua T. Abbott, Thomas L. Griffiths

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

19 Scopus citations

Abstract

The order in which people observe data has an effect on their subsequent judgments and inferences. While Bayesian models of cognition have had some success in predicting human inferences, most of these models do not produce order effects, being unaffected by the order in which data are observed. Recent work has explored approximations to Bayesian inference that make the underlying computations tractable, and also produce order effects in a way that seems consistent with human behavior. One of the most popular approximations of this kind is a sequential Monte Carlo method known as a particle filter. However, there has not been a systematic investigation of how the parameters of a particle filter influence its predictions, or what kinds of order effects (such as primacy or recency effects) these models can produce. In this paper, we use a simple causal learning task as the basis for an investigation of these issues. Both primacy and recency effects are seen in this task, and we demonstrate that both kinds of effects can result from different settings of the parameters of a particle filter.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationExpanding the Space of Cognitive Science - Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, CogSci 2011
EditorsLaura Carlson, Christoph Hoelscher, Thomas F. Shipley
PublisherThe Cognitive Science Society
Pages2950-2955
Number of pages6
ISBN (Electronic)9780976831877
StatePublished - 2011
Externally publishedYes
Event33rd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society: Expanding the Space of Cognitive Science, CogSci 2011 - Boston, United States
Duration: Jul 20 2011Jul 23 2011

Publication series

NameExpanding the Space of Cognitive Science - Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, CogSci 2011

Conference

Conference33rd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society: Expanding the Space of Cognitive Science, CogSci 2011
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityBoston
Period7/20/117/23/11

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Cognitive Neuroscience

Keywords

  • causal learning
  • order effects
  • particle filters
  • rational process models

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