Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2013
Publication Title
Developmental Science
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12011
ISSN
1467-7687
Abstract
Learning about the structure of the world requires learning probabilistic relationships: rules in which cues do not predict outcomes with certainty. However, in some cases, the ability to track probabilistic relationships is a handicap, leading adults to perform non-normatively in prediction tasks. For example, in the dilution effect, predictions made from the combination of two cues of different strengths are less accurate than those made from the stronger cue alone. Here we show that dilution is an adult problem; 11-month-old infants combine strong and weak predictors normatively. These results extend and add support for the less is more hypothesis: limited cognitive resources can lead children to represent probabilistic information differently from adults, and this difference in representation can have important downstream consequences for prediction.
Recommended Citation
Yurovsky, Daniel, Ty W. Boyer, Linda B. Smith, Chen Yu.
2013.
"Probabilistic Cue Combination: Less is More."
Developmental Science, 16 (2): 149-158.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12011 source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3582171/
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/psych-facpubs/65
Comments
This is an Accepted Author Manuscript obtained from PMC. The publisher's final edited version of this article is available at Developmental Science.