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Psychology Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Conference

2012

Cognitive Psychology

Articles 1 - 1 of 1

Full-Text Articles in Psychology

How Base Rate Statistics And Counterfactuals Influence Causal Models And Recommendations For Traffic Safety, Jennifer Milazzo, Edward Munnich, Jade Stannard, Katheryn Conde Apr 2012

How Base Rate Statistics And Counterfactuals Influence Causal Models And Recommendations For Traffic Safety, Jennifer Milazzo, Edward Munnich, Jade Stannard, Katheryn Conde

Creative Activity and Research Day - CARD

How does considering alternative possibilities affect models of what causes changes in statistics? We manipulated two independent variables—prior estimation (whether participants estimated the most recent statistic prior to receiving the correct statistic), and counterfactual thinking (whether participants provided explanations for changes in the statistic in the opposite direction). We measured the following effects: 1) surprise about the correct statistic, 2) changes in participants’ causal models, 3) actions participants recommended to improve the statistic in coming years, and 4) estimates of how much the statistic could improve if proposed actions were implemented.