Trends Cogn Sci. 2016 Oct;20(10):748-759. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2016.08.001. Epub 2016 Aug 23.
Trends in cognitive sciences
Tania Lombrozo
PMID: 27567318 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2016.08.001
Explanations play an important role in learning and inference. People often learn by seeking explanations, and they assess the viability of hypotheses by considering how well they explain the data. An emerging body of work reveals that both children and adults have strong and systematic intuitions about what constitutes a good explanation, and that these explanatory preferences have a systematic impact on explanation-based processes. In particular, people favor explanations that are simple and broad, with the consequence that engaging in explanation can shape learning and inference by leading people to seek patterns and favor hypotheses that support broad and simple explanations. Given the prevalence of explanation in everyday cognition, understanding explanation is therefore crucial to understanding learning and inference.
Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: abduction; breadth; explanation; inference; learning; simplicity
