ERIC Number: EJ735386
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2006-Jan
Pages: 30
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0033-295X
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Available Date: N/A
Tracing the Identity of Objects
Rips, Lance J.; Blok, Sergey; Newman, George
Psychological Review, v113 n1 p1-30 Jan 2006
This article considers how people judge the identity of objects (e.g., how people decide that a description of an object at one time, t-sub-0, belongs to the same object as a description of it at another time, t-sub-1). The authors propose a causal continuer model for these judgments, based on an earlier theory by Nozick (1981). According to this model, the 2 descriptions belong to the same object if (a) the object at t-sub-1 is among those that are causally close enough to be genuine continuers of the original and (b) it is the closest of these close-enough contenders. A quantitative version of the model makes accurate predictions about judgments of which a pair of objects is identical to an original (Experiments 1 and 2). The model makes correct qualitative predictions about identity across radical disassembly (Experiment 1) as well as more ordinary transformations (Experiments 2 and 3).
Descriptors: Causal Models, Attribution Theory, Object Permanence, Psychological Evaluation, Prediction
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
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