Giving the Giggles: Prediction, Intervention, and Young Children's Representation of Psychological Events

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 phenomeno...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Muentener, Paul Jason, Friel, Daniel, Schulz, Laura E.
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Format: Article
Language:en_US
Published: Public Library of Science 2012
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/74640
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2981-8039
_version_ 1826193241719963648
author Muentener, Paul Jason
Friel, Daniel
Schulz, Laura E.
author2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
author_facet Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Muentener, Paul Jason
Friel, Daniel
Schulz, Laura E.
author_sort Muentener, Paul Jason
collection MIT
description 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.
first_indexed 2024-09-23T09:35:53Z
format Article
id mit-1721.1/74640
institution Massachusetts Institute of Technology
language en_US
last_indexed 2024-09-23T09:35:53Z
publishDate 2012
publisher Public Library of Science
record_format dspace
spelling mit-1721.1/746402022-09-30T15:33:46Z Giving the Giggles: Prediction, Intervention, and Young Children's Representation of Psychological Events Muentener, Paul Jason Friel, Daniel Schulz, Laura E. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Muentener, Paul Jason Friel, Daniel Schulz, Laura E. 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. Templeton Foundation (Grant 12667) James S. McDonnell Foundation National Science Foundation (U.S.). (CAREER Award 0744213) 2012-11-14T16:04:37Z 2012-11-14T16:04:37Z 2012-08 2012-04 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1932-6203 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/74640 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). https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2981-8039 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0042495 PLoS ONE Creative Commons Attribution http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ application/pdf Public Library of Science PLoS
spellingShingle Muentener, Paul Jason
Friel, Daniel
Schulz, Laura E.
Giving the Giggles: Prediction, Intervention, and Young Children's Representation of Psychological Events
title Giving the Giggles: Prediction, Intervention, and Young Children's Representation of Psychological Events
title_full Giving the Giggles: Prediction, Intervention, and Young Children's Representation of Psychological Events
title_fullStr Giving the Giggles: Prediction, Intervention, and Young Children's Representation of Psychological Events
title_full_unstemmed Giving the Giggles: Prediction, Intervention, and Young Children's Representation of Psychological Events
title_short Giving the Giggles: Prediction, Intervention, and Young Children's Representation of Psychological Events
title_sort giving the giggles prediction intervention and young children s representation of psychological events
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/74640
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2981-8039
work_keys_str_mv AT muentenerpauljason givingthegigglespredictioninterventionandyoungchildrensrepresentationofpsychologicalevents
AT frieldaniel givingthegigglespredictioninterventionandyoungchildrensrepresentationofpsychologicalevents
AT schulzlaurae givingthegigglespredictioninterventionandyoungchildrensrepresentationofpsychologicalevents