Schlottmann Anne, Allen Deborah, Linderoth Carina, Hesketh Sarah
Department of Psychology, University College London, UK.
Child Dev. 2002 Nov-Dec;73(6):1656-77. doi: 10.1111/1467-8624.00497.
Three experiments considered the development of perceptual causality in children from 3 to 9 years of age (N = 176 in total). Adults tend to see cause and effect even in schematic, two-dimensional motion events: Thus, if square A moves toward B, which moves upon contact, they report that A launches B--physical causality. If B moves before contact, adults report that B tries to escape from A--social or psychological causality. A brief pause between movements eliminates such impressions. Even infants in the first year of life are sensitive to causal structure in both contact and no-contact events, but previous research with talking-age children found poor verbal reports. The present experiments used a picture-based forced-choice task to reduce linguistic demands. Observers saw eight different animations involving squares A and B. Events varied in whether or not these agents made contact; whether or not there was a delay at the closest point; and whether they moved rigidly or with a rhythmic, nonrigid "caterpillar" motion. Participants of all ages assigned events with contact to the physical domain and events without contact to the psychological domain. In addition, participants of all ages chose causality more often for events without delay than with delay, but these events became more distinct over the preschool range. The manipulation of agent motion had only minor and inconsistent effects across studies, even though children of all ages considered only the nonrigid motion to be animal-like. These results agree with the view that perceptual causality is available early in development.
三项实验研究了3至9岁儿童（总共176名）感知因果关系的发展情况。成年人即使在示意性的二维运动事件中也倾向于看出因果关系：因此，如果方块A朝着B移动，B在接触时移动，他们会报告说A推动了B——物理因果关系。如果B在接触前移动，成年人会报告说B试图逃离A——社会或心理因果关系。运动之间的短暂停顿会消除这种印象。甚至一岁的婴儿对接触和非接触事件中的因果结构都很敏感，但之前针对会说话年龄儿童的研究发现他们的言语报告能力较差。本实验使用基于图片的强制选择任务来减少语言要求。观察者观看了涉及方块A和B的八个不同动画。这些事件在这些主体是否接触、在最接近点是否有延迟以及它们是刚性移动还是以有节奏的、非刚性的“毛毛虫”运动方式移动等方面有所不同。所有年龄段的参与者都将有接触的事件归为物理领域，将无接触的事件归为心理领域。此外，所有年龄段的参与者对无延迟事件比有延迟事件更常选择因果关系，但在学前阶段这些事件变得更加明显。尽管所有年龄段的儿童都认为只有非刚性运动类似动物，但在各项研究中主体运动的操纵只产生了微小且不一致的影响。这些结果与感知因果关系在发展早期就已具备的观点一致。
