Krasich, K;
O'Neill, K;
De Brigard, F;
(2024)
Looking at Mental Images: Eye-Tracking Mental Simulation During Retrospective Causal Judgment.
Cognitive Science
, 48
(3)
, Article e13426. 10.1111/cogs.13426.
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Abstract
How do people evaluate causal relationships? Do they just consider what actually happened, or do they also consider what could have counterfactually happened? Using eye tracking and Gaussian process modeling, we investigated how people mentally simulated past events to judge what caused the outcomes to occur. Participants played a virtual ball-shooting game and then—while looking at a blank screen—mentally simulated (a) what actually happened, (b) what counterfactually could have happened, or (c) what caused the outcome to happen. Our findings showed that participants moved their eyes in patterns consistent with the actual or counterfactual events that they mentally simulated. When simulating what caused the outcome to occur, participants moved their eyes consistent with simulations of counterfactual possibilities. These results favor counterfactual theories of causal reasoning, demonstrate how eye movements can reflect simulation during this reasoning and provide a novel approach for investigating retrospective causal reasoning and counterfactual thinking.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Looking at Mental Images: Eye-Tracking Mental Simulation During Retrospective Causal Judgment |
| Location: | United States |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1111/cogs.13426 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/cogs.13426 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2024 The Authors. Cognitive Science published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Cognitive Science Society (CSS). This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
| Keywords: | Causal reasoning, Counterfactual thinking, Eye tracking, Mental imagery, Humans, Judgment, Thinking, Eye-Tracking Technology, Retrospective Studies, Problem Solving |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Experimental Psychology |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10197233 |
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