title: Children's reasoning about the causal significance of the temporal order of events.
abstract: Four experiments examined children's ability to reason about the causal significance of the order in which 2 events occurred (the pressing of buttons on a mechanically operated box). In Study 1, 4-year-olds were unable to make the relevant inferences, whereas 5-year-olds were successful on one version of the task. In Study 2, 3-year-olds were successful on a simplified version of the task in which they were able to observe the events although not their consequences. Study 3 found that older children had difficulties with the original task even when provided with cues to attend to order information. However, 5-year-olds performed successfully in Study 4, in which the causally relevant event was made more salient.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Queen's University Belfast, David Keir Building, Malone Road, Belfast, Northern Ireland BT9 5BP, UK. T.McCormack@qub.ac.uk
authors.forename: Teresa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: McCormack
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hoerl
mesh_terms: D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D013998:Time Perception