The Distinction Between Inductive Confidence and Strength in Property Induction
Moyun Wang · 2018
The author distinguishes between inductive confidence and strength in property relevance-based induction. The author predicts that property relevance strength will affect inductive confidence and strength in different ways, resulting in a dissociation between inductive confidence and strength. The prediction is confirmed by the following findings from three experiments. Property relevance-based inductions showed higher inductive confidence than similarity-based inductions. In property relevance-based induction, (a) the influence of relevance similarity on inductive strength increased with relevance strength, and thereby inductive strength was jointly determined by relevance strength and relevance similarity; (b) inductive confidence increased with relevance strength independent of similarity and inductive strength. Overall, relevance strength affected inductive strength and confidence in different ways, resulting in the dissociation between inductive confidence and strength. These findings are beyond the existing accounts of inductive reasoning. The author proposes a relevance similarity framework that integrates relevance strength and relevance similarity, which can explain these findings.