ERIC Number: EJ1010206
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2013
Pages: 12
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0009-3920
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Available Date: N/A
Did She Jump Because She Was the Big Sister or Because the Trampoline Was Safe? Causal Inference and the Development of Social Attribution
Seiver, Elizabeth; Gopnik, Alison; Goodman, Noah D.
Child Development, v84 n2 p443-454 Mar-Apr 2013
Children rely on both evidence and prior knowledge to make physical causal inferences; this study explores whether they make attributions about others' behavior in the same manner. A total of one hundred and fifty-nine 4- and 6-year-olds saw 2 dolls interacting with 2 activities, and explained the dolls' actions. In the person condition, each doll acted consistently across activities, but differently from each other. In the situation condition, the two dolls acted differently for each activity, but both performed the same actions. Both age groups provided more "person" explanations (citing features of the doll) in the person condition than in the situation condition. In addition, 6-year-olds showed an overall bias toward “person” explanations. As in physical causal inference, social causal inference combines covariational evidence and prior knowledge. (Contains 3 tables and 1 figure.)
Descriptors: Inferences, Prior Learning, Attribution Theory, Toys, Age Differences, Young Children, Vignettes, Developmental Stages, Cognitive Processes, Probability, Prediction
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Preschool Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
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