Work

Children's Reasoning About the Causal Significance of the Temporal Order of Events.

Year: 2005

Type: article

Abstract: Four experiments examined children's ability to reason about the causal significance of the order in which 2 events occurred (the pressing of buttons on a mechanically operated box). In Study 1, 4-year-olds were unable to make the relevant inferences, whereas 5-year-olds were successful on one version of the task. In Study 2, 3-year-olds were successful on a simplified version of the task in which they were able to observe the events although not their consequences. Study 3 found that older children had difficulties with the original task even when provided with cues to attend to order information. However, 5-year-olds performed successfully in Study 4, in which the causally relevant event was made more salient.

Source: Developmental Psychology

DOI: 10.1037/0012-1649.41.1.54

Authors: Teresa McCormack, Christoph Hoerl

Institutions: Queen's University Belfast, University of Warwick

Language: English

Topic: Child and Animal Learning Development

Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: Directorate for Biological Sciences, Arts and Humanities Research Council, Economic and Social Research Council

Award: G994601598