Schulz Laura E, Sommerville Jessica
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307, USA.
Child Dev. 2006 Mar-Apr;77(2):427-42. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2006.00880.x.
Three studies investigated children's belief in causal determinism. If children are determinists, they should infer unobserved causes whenever observed causes appear to act stochastically. In Experiment 1, 4-year-olds saw a stochastic generative cause and inferred the existence of an unobserved inhibitory cause. Children traded off inferences about the presence of unobserved inhibitory causes and the absence of unobserved generative causes. In Experiment 2, 4-year-olds used the pattern of indeterminacy to decide whether unobserved variables were generative or inhibitory. Experiment 3 suggested that children (4 years old) resist believing that direct causes can act stochastically, although they accept that events can be stochastically associated. Children's deterministic assumptions seem to support inferences not obtainable from other cues.
三项研究调查了儿童对因果决定论的信念。如果儿童是决定论者，那么每当观察到的原因似乎随机起作用时，他们就应该推断出未被观察到的原因。在实验1中，4岁的儿童看到了一个随机的生成性原因，并推断出存在一个未被观察到的抑制性原因。儿童在关于未被观察到的抑制性原因的存在和未被观察到的生成性原因的不存在的推断之间进行权衡。在实验2中，4岁的儿童利用不确定性模式来决定未被观察到的变量是生成性的还是抑制性的。实验3表明，4岁的儿童虽然接受事件可以随机关联，但他们拒绝相信直接原因可以随机起作用。儿童的确定性假设似乎支持从其他线索无法获得的推断。
