title: Causal learning mechanisms in very young children: two-, three-, and four-year-olds infer causal relations from patterns of variation and covariation.
abstract: Three studies investigated whether young children make accurate causal inferences on the basis of patterns of variation and covariation. Children were presented with a new causal relation by means of a machine called the "blicket detector." Some objects, but not others, made the machine light up and play music. In the first 2 experiments, children were told that "blickets make the machine go" and were then asked to identify which objects were "blickets." Two-, 3-, and 4-year-old children were shown various patterns of variation and covariation between two different objects and the activation of the machine. All 3 age groups took this information into account in their causal judgments about which objects were blickets. In a 3rd experiment, 3- and 4-year-old children used the information when they were asked to make the machine stop. These results are related to Bayes-net causal graphical models of causal learning.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley 94720, USA. gopnik@socrates.berkeley.edu
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gopnik
authors.forename: D M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Sobel
authors.forename: L E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Schulz
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Glymour
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D003210:Concept Formation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D011897:Random Allocation