Thinking Counterfactually Supports Children's Evidence Evaluation in Causal Learning

Autor/inn/en	Engle, Jae; Walker, Caren M.
Titel	Thinking Counterfactually Supports Children's Evidence Evaluation in Causal Learning
Quelle	In: Child Development, 92 (2021) 4, S.1636-1651 (16 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Engle, Jae) ORCID (Walker, Caren M.)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0009-3920
DOI	10.1111/cdev.13518
Schlagwörter	Young Children; Logical Thinking; Discrimination Learning; Prompting; Prior Learning; Beliefs; Evaluative Thinking + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Frühe Kindheit; Lernen; Lernprozess; Benutzerführung; Vorkenntnisse; Belief; Glaube
Abstract	Often, the evidence we observe is consistent with more than one explanation. How do learners discriminate among candidate causes? The current studies examine whether counterfactuals help 5-year olds (N = 120) select between competing hypotheses and compares the effectiveness of these prompts to a related scaffold. In Experiment 1, counterfactuals support evidence evaluation, leading children to privilege and extend the cause that accounted for more data. In Experiment 2, the hypothesis that accounted for the most evidence was pitted against children's prior beliefs. Children who considered alternative outcomes privileged the hypothesis that accounted for more observations, whereas those who explained relied on prior beliefs. Findings demonstrate that counterfactuals recruit attention to disambiguating evidence and outperform explanation when data contrast with existing beliefs. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www.wiley.com/en-us
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01