Skip to content Skip to navigation
University of Warwick
  • Study
  • |
  • Research
  • |
  • Business
  • |
  • Alumni
  • |
  • News
  • |
  • About

University of Warwick
Publications service & WRAP

Highlight your research

  • WRAP
    • Home
    • Search WRAP
    • Browse by Warwick Author
    • Browse WRAP by Year
    • Browse WRAP by Subject
    • Browse WRAP by Department
    • Browse WRAP by Funder
    • Browse Theses by Department
  • Publications Service
    • Home
    • Search Publications Service
    • Browse by Warwick Author
    • Browse Publications service by Year
    • Browse Publications service by Subject
    • Browse Publications service by Department
    • Browse Publications service by Funder
  • Help & Advice
University of Warwick

The Library

  • Login
  • Admin

Instantaneous systems of communicative conventions through virtual bargaining

Tools
- Tools
+ Tools

Misyak, Jennifer B. and Chater, Nick (2022) Instantaneous systems of communicative conventions through virtual bargaining. Cognition, 225 . 105097. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2022.105097 ISSN 0010-0277.

[img]
Preview
PDF
WRAP-instantaneous-systems-communicative-conventions-through-virtual-bargaining-Chater-2022.pdf - Accepted Version - Requires a PDF viewer.
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives 4.0.

Download (1667Kb) | Preview
Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2022.105097

Request Changes to record.

Abstract

People can instantaneously create novel conventions that link individual communicative signals to meanings, both in experiments and everyday communication. Yet a basic principle of natural communication is that the meaning of a signal typically contrasts with the meanings of alternative signals that were available but not chosen. That is, communicative conventions typically form a system, rather than consisting of isolated signal-meaning pairs. Accordingly, creating a novel convention linking a specific signal and meaning seems to require creating a system of conventions linking possible signals to possible meanings, of which the signal-meaning pair to be communicated is merely a sub-case. If so, people will not link signals and meanings in isolation; signal-meaning pairings will depend on alternative signals and meanings. We outline and address theoretical challenges concerning how instantaneous conventions can be formed, building on prior work on “virtual bargaining,” in which people simulate the results of a process of negotiation concerning which convention, or system of conventions, to choose. Moreover, we demonstrate empirically that instantaneous systems of conventions can flexibly be created in a ‘minimal’ experimental paradigm. Experimental evidence from 158 people playing a novel signaling game shows that modifying both the set of signals, and the set of meanings, can indeed systematically modify the signal-meaning mappings that people may instantaneously construct. While consistent with the virtual bargaining account, accounting for these results may be challenging for some accounts of pragmatic inference.

Item Type: Journal Article
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Divisions: Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School > Behavioural Science
Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School
Journal or Publication Title: Cognition
Publisher: Elsevier
ISSN: 0010-0277
Official Date: August 2022
Dates:
DateEvent
August 2022Published
6 April 2022Available
10 March 2022Accepted
Volume: 225
Article Number: 105097
DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2022.105097
Status: Peer Reviewed
Publication Status: Published
Access rights to Published version: Restricted or Subscription Access
Date of first compliant deposit: 21 March 2022
Date of first compliant Open Access: 6 April 2023
Grant number: ]
RIOXX Funder/Project Grant:
Project/Grant IDRIOXX Funder NameFunder ID
ES/P008976/1[ESRC] Economic and Social Research Councilhttp://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000269
Related URLs:
  • Publisher

Request changes or add full text files to a record

Repository staff actions (login required)

View Item View Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics

twitter

Email us: wrap@warwick.ac.uk
Contact Details
About Us