DISCOVERING FUNCTIONALLY INDEPENDENT MENTAL PROCESSES - THE PRINCIPLE OF REVERSED ASSOCIATION
DISCOVERING FUNCTIONALLY INDEPENDENT MENTAL PROCESSES - THE PRINCIPLE OF REVERSED ASSOCIATION
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DOI：
10.1037/0033-295x.95.1.91
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发表时间：
1988-01-01
影响因子：
5.4
通讯作者：
KIRSNER, K
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
DUNN, JC;KIRSNER, K
认知心理学和神经心理学的共同目标是心理功能的分解——对行为背后的基本过程的分离和表征。按照惯例，用于识别这些过程的主要技术是基于功能分离——观察变量对任务的选择性影响。然而，尽管它们被广泛使用，与这些技术相关的推理逻辑在两个方面存在缺陷。首先，可以假设模拟单解离和双解离的单一过程；其次，对这两种分离的观察和解释都受到选择性影响假设的限制，而大多数（如果不是全部的话）心理学家现在都认为这种假设是错误的。本文的目的有两个：(a)回顾和明确单解离和双解离的推理界限；(b)引入一种克服这些限制的新技术。这种新技术被称为反向关联，它被定义为两个感兴趣的任务之间的任何非单调关系。我们认为，反向关联代替功能分离，为推断潜在性能的功能独立过程的数量提供了更可靠的基础，并且假设更少，为研究人员发现这些过程并确定其性质和影响提供了更大的空间。
A joint aim of cognitive psychology and neuropsychology has been the decomposition of mental function—the isolation and characterization of basic processes underlying behavior. By convention, the principal techniques used to identify such processes are based on functional dissociation—the observation of selective effects of variables on tasks. Yet, despite their widespread use, the inferential logic associated with these techniques is flawed in two ways. First, it is possible to posit single processes that mimic both single and double dissociation; and second, observation and interpretation of both kinds of dissociation are limited by an assumption of selective influence that most, if not all, psychologists would now reject as false. The aims of this article are twofold:(a) to review and make explicit the inferential limits of single and double dissociation; and (b) to introduce a new technique that overcomes these limits. Called reversed association, this new technique is defined as any nonmonotonic relation between two tasks of interest. We argue that reversed association, in place of functional dissociation, offers a sounder basis for inferring the number of functionally independent processes underlying performance and, having fewer assumptions, offers researchers greater scope for discovering such processes and determining their nature and effects.