The Effects of Task Characteristics on Covariation Assessment: The Impact of Accountability and Judgment Frame

The impact of personal accountability and judgment frame on strategies for assessing covariation between two binary variables was examined in two experiments. Using a task designed to discriminate between the use of four different strategies varying in degree of sophistication it was found that subjects accountable to an audience with unknown views displayed use of more complex strategies than subjects who were not accountable. In addition, contrary to a recent attribution model (Cheng & Novick, 1992), subjects were less likely to use the conditional probability rule when the judgment question was framed in terms of causality rather than covariation, and covariation judgments did not always parallel causality judgments.