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Cognitive Biases in Reasoning and Interpretation

Objectif

People often reason in ways which deviate from classical logic. An influential idea introduced by Grice is that these deviations are not logical mistakes but rather consequences of pragmatic enrichments derived as the product of rational interactions between cooperative language users. Challenging the Gricean tradition, the core hypothesis behind this project is that many of the enriched interpretations we observe in everyday conversation are not derived by Gricean reasoning, but rather result from biases due to our [human] preference to minimise cognitive effort. The main goal of the project is to arrive at a unified theory of such bias-driven interpretations and a principled explanation of how they relate to canonical pragmatic and semantic inferences in the context of a comprehensive account of human reasoning. We will study three biases that on my hypothesis affect both reasoning and interpretation: (i) a tendency to avoid emptiness (neglect-zero); (ii) a negative bias towards the parallel processing of multiple alternatives (no-split) and (iii) a tendency to assume that what is not known to be true is false (min-mod). Building on previous work of the PI the project will define logics that isolate the effect of these biases in deductions and interpretation; provide linguistic analyses detailing their impact in natural language, and conduct experiments probing their role in cognition. By combining logical modelling and experimental methods I aim at a novel architecture, where conventional, contextual and cognitive aspects of human reasoning and communication can be studied in a unified and principled way. In linguistics, cognitive biases have been argued to play a role but mostly to shape lexicalisations. In psychology and economics, the focus is often on their effect on fast thinking, (non-linguistic) decisions and behaviour. This would be the first project using logic to study their impact on enriched interpretations in both reasoning and conversation.

Champ scientifique (EuroSciVoc)

Mots‑clés

Programme(s)

Thème(s)

Régime de financement

HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants

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Appel à propositions

(s’ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) ERC-2025-ADG

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Institution d’accueil

UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM
Contribution nette de l'UE
€ 2 491 250,00
Coût total
Aucune donnée

Bénéficiaires (1)