title: Mechanism-based causal reasoning in young children.
abstract: The hypothesis that children develop an understanding of causal mechanisms was tested across 3 experiments. In Experiment 1 (N = 48), preschoolers had to choose as efficacious either a cause that had worked in the past, but was now disconnected from its effect, or a cause that had failed to work previously, but was now connected. Four-year-olds chose the now-connected cause more often than 3-year-olds. Experiment 2 (N = 16) showed 4-year-olds responded appropriately to an irrelevant modification in the same causal system. Experiment 3 (N = 24) demonstrated when the mechanism was batteries rather than connection, 3-year-olds could properly distinguish between relevant and irrelevant modifications. Together, these data suggest that understanding of specific causal mechanisms develops at different ages.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Sciences, Box 1821, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA. dwbucha@gmail.com
authors.forename: David W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Buchanan
authors.forename: David M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Sobel
mesh_terms: D001245:Association Learning; D015984:Causality; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003210:Concept Formation; D004560:Electricity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008029:Lighting; D008297:Male; D009949:Orientation; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D012193:Reversal Learning