Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T17:12:51.882Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Quantum probability and conceptual combination in conjunctions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 May 2013

James A. Hampton*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, City University London, City University, Northampton Square, London EC1V OHB, United Kingdom. Hampton@city.ac.ukwww.staff.city.ac.uk/hampton

Abstract

I consider the general problem of category conjunctions in the light of Pothos & Busemeyer (P&B)'s quantum probability (QP) account of the conjunction fallacy. I argue that their account as presented cannot capture the “guppy effect” – the case in which a class is a better member of a conjunction A^B than it is of either A or B alone.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Hampton, J. A. (1987) Inheritance of attributes in natural concept conjunctions. Memory & Cognition 15:5571.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hampton, J. A. (1988b) Overextension of conjunctive concepts: Evidence for a unitary model for concept typicality and class inclusion. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 14:1232.Google Scholar
Hampton, J. A. (1997) Emergent attributes in conceptual combinations. In: Creative thought: An investigation of conceptual structures and processes, ed. Ward, T. B., Smith, S. M. & Viad, J., pp. 83110. American Psychological Association Press.Google Scholar
Hampton, J. A. (2012) Thinking intuitively: The rich (and at times illogical) world of concepts. Current directions in psychological science 21:398402.Google Scholar
Osherson, D. & Smith, E. (1981) On the adequacy of prototype theory as a theory of concepts. Cognition 9:3558.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Storms, G., De Boeck, P., van Mechelen, I. & Ruts, W. (2005) Not guppies, nor goldfish, but tumble dryers, Noriega, Jesse Jackson, panties, car crashes, bird books, and Stevie Wonder. Memory & Cognition 26:143–45.Google Scholar
Tversky, A. & Kahneman, D. (1983) Extensional versus intuitive reasoning: The conjunction fallacy in probability judgment. Psychological Review 90(4): 293315.Google Scholar