Browsing Department of Psychology by Author "Byrne, Ruth M.J."

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    • Counterfactual and Prefactual Conditionals 

      Egan, Suzanne M.; Byrne, Ruth M.J. (Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 2004)
      We consider reasoning about prefactual possibilities in the future, for example, “if I were to win the lottery next year I would buy a yacht” and counterfactual possibilities, for example, “if I had won the lottery last ...

    • Counterfactual promises and threats 

      Egan, Suzanne M.; Byrne, Ruth M.J. (Cognitive Science Society, 2004)
      We examine counterfactual conditionals about promises, such as ‘if you had tidied your room then I would have given you ice-cream’ and threats such as ‘if you had hit your sister then I would have grounded you’. Reasoners ...

    • Counterfactual ‘only if ’ conditionals 

      Egan, Suzanne M.; Byrne, Ruth M.J.; García-Madruga, Juan A. (Cognitive Science Society, 2003)
      People understand a conditional, 'if A then B', such as 'if Peg went swimming then she felt well' by keeping in mind only true possibilities, e.g., A and B, not-A and not-B, not-A and B (Johnson-Laird & Byrne, 2002). ...

    • Indicative and Counterfactual 'only if' conditionals'. 

      Egan, Suzanne M.; García-Madruga, Juan A.; Byrne, Ruth M.J. (Elsevier, 2009-11)
      We report three experiments to test the possibilities reasoners think about when they understand a con-ditional of the form ‘A only if B’ compared to ‘if A then B’. The experiments examine conditionals in the indicative ...