Henry Markovits, Walter Schroyens
A curious belief-bias effect: reasoning with false premises and inhibition of real-life information
Experimental psychology
people strong intuitions influence objects exert upon one another collide peoples judgments appear deviate newtonian mechanics psychologists suggested people depend variety taskspecific heuristics leaves open question heuristics could chosen integrate unified model explain human judgments across wide range physical reasoning tasks propose alternative framework peoples judgments based optimal statistical inference newtonian physical model incorporates sensory noise intrinsic uncertainty physical properties objects viewed noisy newton framework applied multitude judgments peoples answers determined uncertainty physical variables constraints newtonian mechanics investigate range effects mass judgments taken strong evidence heuristic use show well explained interplay newtonian constraints sensory uncertainty also consider extended model handles causality judgments obtain good quantitative agreement human judgments across tasks involve different judgment types single consistent set parameters