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...
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Language: | en_US |
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Public Library of Science
2012
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Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/74640 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2981-8039 |
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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 |
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