Skip to main content

LUP Student Papers

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

An Assessment of the Role of Individual Differences and Variable Salience in Normative Causal Reasoning

Kallio Strand, Kalle LU and Nörthen, Ossian LU (2018) PSYK11 20181
Department of Psychology
Abstract
Normative causal reasoning is essential for proper decision-making to be conducted, which is highly relevant in areas such as personnel assessment and predictions of work performance. However, research has found consistent violations of the Markov Assumption, a defining aspect of normative causal models that indicates which nodes in a causal network that are conditionally independent of one another. The purpose of the study was to investigate the role of Need for Cognition (NFC) in Markov violations, and whether violations were affected by variable salience. Participants (N = 64) made causal inferences in causal chain networks across eight vignettes and answered a translated measurement of NFC. Results of a four-way ANOVA revealed that... (More)
Normative causal reasoning is essential for proper decision-making to be conducted, which is highly relevant in areas such as personnel assessment and predictions of work performance. However, research has found consistent violations of the Markov Assumption, a defining aspect of normative causal models that indicates which nodes in a causal network that are conditionally independent of one another. The purpose of the study was to investigate the role of Need for Cognition (NFC) in Markov violations, and whether violations were affected by variable salience. Participants (N = 64) made causal inferences in causal chain networks across eight vignettes and answered a translated measurement of NFC. Results of a four-way ANOVA revealed that although participants consistently violated the Markov Assumption, violations were unaffected by NFC scores and salience. A significant medium-sized interaction effect showed that participants committed more Markov violations when the mediating variable in causal chains was present as opposed to absent, suggesting that violations are influenced by certain situational factors. Lastly, no correlation was found between Markov violations and NFC, although conclusions are limited given that analyses indicated a restriction in range for NFC. Explaining individual differences remain an important aspect of research on Markov violations, and potential directions which future researchers can take are discussed. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Kallio Strand, Kalle LU and Nörthen, Ossian LU
supervisor
organization
course
PSYK11 20181
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
Causal reasoning, Markov violations, Need for Cognition, decision-making, salience
language
English
id
8948564
date added to LUP
2018-06-13 09:28:06
date last changed
2018-06-13 09:28:06
@misc{8948564,
  abstract     = {{Normative causal reasoning is essential for proper decision-making to be conducted, which is highly relevant in areas such as personnel assessment and predictions of work performance. However, research has found consistent violations of the Markov Assumption, a defining aspect of normative causal models that indicates which nodes in a causal network that are conditionally independent of one another. The purpose of the study was to investigate the role of Need for Cognition (NFC) in Markov violations, and whether violations were affected by variable salience. Participants (N = 64) made causal inferences in causal chain networks across eight vignettes and answered a translated measurement of NFC. Results of a four-way ANOVA revealed that although participants consistently violated the Markov Assumption, violations were unaffected by NFC scores and salience. A significant medium-sized interaction effect showed that participants committed more Markov violations when the mediating variable in causal chains was present as opposed to absent, suggesting that violations are influenced by certain situational factors. Lastly, no correlation was found between Markov violations and NFC, although conclusions are limited given that analyses indicated a restriction in range for NFC. Explaining individual differences remain an important aspect of research on Markov violations, and potential directions which future researchers can take are discussed.}},
  author       = {{Kallio Strand, Kalle and Nörthen, Ossian}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{An Assessment of the Role of Individual Differences and Variable Salience in Normative Causal Reasoning}},
  year         = {{2018}},
}