The Additive Judge: On the Abstraction of Explicit Knowledge of Cue-Criterion Relations

An experiment with a multiple-cue judgment task tested the hypothesis that humans can only abstract explicit representations of cue-criterion relations when the cues are related to the criterion by an additive function. It is proposed that the sequential and capacity-constrained nature of controlled, explicit thought can only induce and execute linear additive cue integration; non-additive environments require exemplar memory. The results showed that an additive task induced processes of cue abstraction and cue integration, while a multiplicative task induced exemplar processes. The results suggest flexible interplay between distinct representation-levels, a preference to abstract explicit “rules” whenever possible, although this capacity is constrained to additive cue-criterion relations.