The importance of frameworks for directing empirical questions: Reply to Goodie and Fantino (2000)

A. S. Goodie and E. Fantino (2000) make two main criticisms of the predicti ons of M. C. Lovett and C. D. Schunn's (1999) RCCL model. (RCCL is pronounc ed "ReCyCLe"; it stands for Represent the task, Construct a set of action s trategies, Choose from among those strategies according to success rate, Le arn new success rates.) In both cases, the authors believe the criticisms r eflect a failure to appreciate the difference between broad frameworks and specific mathematical/computational models. In this article, the value of a broad framework, such as RCCL, in directing new empirical analyses and gui ding theoretical development is shown. In particular, RCCL expands on exist ing work to reveal how variability and change in mental representations inf luence base-rate sensitivity. The authors also address several other issues raised by A. S. Goodie and E. Fantino (2000) and show that qualitative shi fts in individuals' choice behavior are present in their original data-a ke y prediction of RCCL that does not appear in previous accounts.