Just Do It? Investigating the Gap between Prediction and Action in Toddlers Causal Inferences

Autor/inn/en	Bonawitz, Elizabeth Baraff; Ferranti, Darlene; Saxe, Rebecca; Gopnik, Alison; Meltzoff, Andrew N.; Woodward, James; Schulz, Laura E.
Titel	Just Do It? Investigating the Gap between Prediction and Action in Toddlers Causal Inferences
Quelle	In: Cognition, 115 (2010) 1, S.104-117 (14 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0010-0277
DOI	10.1016/j.cognition.2009.12.001
Schlagwörter	Predictor Variables; Toddlers; Inferences; Intervention; Predictive Validity; Attribution Theory; Cognitive Processes; Language Usage + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Prädiktor; Infant; Infants; Toddler; Kleinkind; Inference; Inferenz; Cognitive process; Kognitiver Prozess; Sprachgebrauch
Abstract	Adults' causal representations integrate information about predictive relations and the possibility of effective intervention; if one event reliably predicts another, adults can represent the possibility that acting to bring about the first event might generate the second. Here we show that although toddlers (mean age: 24 months) readily learn predictive relationships between physically connected events, they do not spontaneously initiate one event to try to generate the second (although older children, mean age: 47 months, do; Experiments 1 and 2). Toddlers succeed only when the events are initiated by a dispositional agent (Experiment 3), when the events involve direct contact between objects (Experiment 4), or when the events are described using causal language (Experiment 5). This suggests that causal language may help children extend their initial causal representations beyond agent-initiated and direct contact events. (Contains 1 table and 2 figures.) (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10