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Discounting and Augmentation

Is there Something Special about the Number of Causes?

University of Alberta, Canada

David L. Ronis

Michigan Research Cooperative

It is argued that the number of plausible causes effect is a product of the total valence of the causes rather than the number of causes. Orthogonal manipulations of the number of causes and total valence for a chosen (experiment 1) and foregone (experiment 2) action show no effect for the number of causes variable. Attribution to a given cause is a function of its proportion of the total valence. This conception of valence relegates the number of plausible causes concept to the role of an epiphenomenon whose influence can only be understood and predicted by knowledge of changes in valence.

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