Preschoolers make probabilistic backward-blocking causal inferences, with capacities appearing by 18 months¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · review r2–r3 · q2–q3
Currency · newest study 2012 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · overdue for a recheck since 2017: baselines and conditions change

Subclaims¶

q3 i? Preschool children make correct backward-blocking inferences, judging an object less likely to be causal when another object alone sufficed to activate the machine. → Gopnik 2012 q2 i? Backward blocking appears by 18 months, and anticipatory looking suggests 9-month-olds may infer causation from covariation. → Gopnik 2012 (2)

Evidence¶

Gopnik 2012¶

Gopnik, A., & Wellman, H. M. (2012). Reconstructing constructivism: Causal models, Bayesian learning mechanisms and the theory theory. Psychological Bulletin, 138(6), 1085-1108. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0028044

q3 · i? · review · r2

The review reports Sobel et al. (2004): children saw A alone activate the machine, then A and B together; because A alone sufficed, children judged B less likely to be a blicket. The article notes this inference is probabilistic and hard for associationist theories to explain.

"Sobel et al. (2004) found that preschool children would also make correct causal inferences from more complex statistical patterns, particularly “backward blocking”."

Gopnik 2012 (2)¶

Gopnik, A., & Wellman, H. M. (2012). Reconstructing constructivism: Causal models, Bayesian learning mechanisms and the theory theory. Psychological Bulletin, 138(6), 1085-1108. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0028044

q2 · i? · review · r3

The review attributes to Sobel and Kirkham (2007) backward blocking at 18 months and, in an anticipatory looking task, apparent covariation-based causal inference even in 9-month-olds.

"Sobel and Kirkham (2007) found that children as young as 18 months old also showed similar capacities for backward blocking."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

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