title: Causal systems categories: differences in novice and expert categorization of causal phenomena.
abstract: We investigated the understanding of causal systems categories--categories defined by common causal structure rather than by common domain content--among college students. We asked students who were either novices or experts in the physical sciences to sort descriptions of real-world phenomena that varied in their causal structure (e.g., negative feedback vs. causal chain) and in their content domain (e.g., economics vs. biology). Our hypothesis was that there would be a shift from domain-based sorting to causal sorting with increasing expertise in the relevant domains. This prediction was borne out: the novice groups sorted primarily by domain and the expert group sorted by causal category. These results suggest that science training facilitates insight about causal structures.
authors.affiliation: Department of Hospital Medicine, University of Chicago, USA.
authors.forename: Benjamin M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Rottman
authors.forename: Dedre
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gentner
authors.forename: Micah B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Goldwater
mesh_terms: D015984:Causality; D002965:Classification; D003071:Cognition; D006801:Humans; D008128:Logic; D055815:Young Adult