Maguire, Rebecca and Keane, Mark (2006) Surprise: Disconfirmed expectations or representation-fit? Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 28. pp. 1765-1770. ISSN 1069-7977
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Abstract
Surprise for a particular event is often thought to correspond to
the degree to which that event deviates from an expected
schema. However, in this paper we present two novel
experiments that challenge this view. Participants were asked to
rate how surprised they would be if an event, or series of
events, followed on from a number of short scenarios. In one
condition these events confirmed an expected outcome, while
in another they contradicted this outcome. A third condition
included a potential enabling factor along with the unexpected
outcome. The results show that, even when events deviate
significantly from an established schema, surprise is lower if
people have a means of integrating that event into their
representation. This finding is consistent with our theory of
Representation-Fit, which asserts that a person’s level of
surprise for a given event can be determined by how well that
event is supported by the prior discourse.
Item Type: | Article |
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Keywords: | Surprise; expectation; representation; discourse; |
Academic Unit: | Faculty of Science and Engineering > Psychology |
Item ID: | 12638 |
Depositing User: | Rebecca Maguire |
Date Deposited: | 20 Mar 2020 13:09 |
Journal or Publication Title: | Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society |
Publisher: | Cognitive Science Society |
Refereed: | Yes |
URI: | https://mu.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/12638 |
Use Licence: | This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here |
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