Scientists from the University of California at Los Angeles found that rodents make the same cognitive mistakes as humans. The research was published in the journal Psychonomic Bulletin and Review.
The authors of the new study designed two experiments in which mice had to evaluate the probability of an event before they could receive a food reward (candy balls).
Rats were trained in two scenarios: sound + light = reward and sound = reward. The animals learned to respond to the right signals and took sugar regularly.
When the researchers covered the light bulb with a piece of metal and started playing sounds, the rats had to guess whether the light bulb was on in order to receive the food reward. The rats were much more likely to guess that the hidden lamp was on. This means that if there is sound, they tend to believe that there is light.
The famous “Linda problem” was developed by psychologists to show how people fall into the conjunction error. The original mission was formulated as follows: “Linda is 31 years old, single, outspoken and very intelligent. He specialized in philosophy. As a student, he was deeply involved in discrimination and social justice issues and also participated in anti-nuclear demonstrations.”
To solve the problem, you need to estimate the probability of two events: “Linda works as a bank teller” or “Linda works as a bank teller and is actively involved in the feminist movement.” While this is logically less likely, the vast majority of respondents choose the second option. This is because participants rely on Linda’s description and rate the probability of an event based on how well it matches the model they have in mind.
The scientists’ discovery could mean that linkage error is more common in the animal kingdom than previously thought. It also refutes the hypothesis that the logical error people make in answering the “Linda task” is related to features of human language, not consciousness.