Giving the Giggles: Prediction, Intervention, and Young Children's Representation of Psychological Events
Author(s)
Muentener, Paul Jason; Friel, Daniel; Schulz, Laura E.
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Adults recognize that if event A predicts event B, intervening on A might generate B. Research suggests that young children have difficulty making this inference unless the events are initiated by goal-directed actions. The current study tested the domain-generality and development of this phenomenon. Replicating previous work, when the events involved a physical outcome, toddlers (mean: 24 months) failed to generalize the outcome of spontaneously occurring predictive events to their own interventions; toddlers did generalize from prediction to intervention when the events involved a psychological outcome. We discuss these findings as they bear on the development of causal concepts.
Date issued
2012-08Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive SciencesJournal
PLoS ONE
Publisher
Public Library of Science
Citation
Muentener, Paul, Daniel Friel, and Laura Schulz. “Giving the Giggles: Prediction, Intervention, and Young Children’s Representation of Psychological Events.” Ed. Tiziana Zalla. PLoS ONE 7.8 (2012).
Version: Final published version
ISSN
1932-6203