Bridging the Gap: Causality-at-a-Distance in Children's Categorization and Inferences about Internal Properties

Autor/inn/en	Sobel, David M.; Buchanan, David W.
Titel	Bridging the Gap: Causality-at-a-Distance in Children's Categorization and Inferences about Internal Properties
Quelle	In: Cognitive Development, 24 (2009) 3, S.274-283 (10 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0885-2014
DOI	10.1016/j.cogdev.2009.03.003
Schlagwörter	Cues; Conflict; Preschool Children; Classification; Inferences; Influences; Cognitive Processes; Perception; Cognitive Development + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Stichwort; Konflikt; Pre-school age; Preschool age; Child; Children; Pre-school education; Preschool education; Vorschulalter; Kind; Kinder; Vorschulkind; Vorschulkinder; Vorschulerziehung; Vorschule; Classification system; Klassifikation; Klassifikationssystem; Inference; Inferenz; Influence; Einfluss; Einflussfaktor; Cognitive process; Kognitiver Prozess; Wahrnehmung; Kognitive Entwicklung
Abstract	Previous research has shown that preschoolers extend labels and internal properties of objects based on those objects' causal properties, even when the causal properties conflict with the objects' perceptual appearance [Nazzi, T., & Gopnik, A. (2000). "A shift in children's use of perceptual and causal cues to categorization." "Developmental Science," 3, 389-396; Sobel, D. M., Yoachim, C. M., Gopnik, A., Meltzoff, A. N., & Blumenthal, E. J. (2007). "The blicket within: Preschoolers' inferences about insides and causes." "Journal of Cognition and Development," 8, 159-182]. These studies, however, only presented causal relations that acted on contact. In two studies, contact causality was replaced by distance causality. In contrast to the contact causality case, 4- and 5-year-olds extended labels to objects with similar perceptual properties over objects with similar causal properties when those properties acted at a distance. When children were asked to make inferences about object's internal properties, they were more likely to make causal responses, with 5-year-olds doing so to a greater extent than 4-year-olds. In a second study, 4-year-olds registered causal properties that acted at a distance and used them to make inferences when no perceptual conflict was present. These results support a hypothesis that young children develop an understanding of the specific mechanisms that link causal relations. (Contains 2 figures and 2 tables.) (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10