Schlottmann Anne, Ray Elizabeth D, Mitchell Anne, Demetriou Nathalie
Department of Psychology, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
Acta Psychol (Amst). 2006 Sep-Oct;123(1-2):112-43. doi: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2006.05.006. Epub 2006 Aug 14.
Michotte argued that we perceive cause-and-effect, without contributions from reasoning or learning, even in displays of two-dimensional moving shapes. Two studies extend this line of work from perception of mechanical to social causality. We compared verbal reports with structured ratings of causality to gain a better understanding of the extent to which perceptual causality occurs spontaneously or depends on instruction or context. A total of 120 adult observers (72 in the main experiment, 48 in an initial experiment) saw 12 (or 8) different computer animations of shape A moving up to B, which in turn moved away. Animations factorially varied the temporal and spatial relations of the shapes, and whether they moved rigidly or in a non-rigid, animal-like manner. Impressions of social as well as physical causality appeared in both free reports and ratings. Perception of physical causality was stronger than perception of social causality, particularly in free reports. No differences of this nature appear in infants and children, so the asymmetry may reflect learnt knowledge. Physical causality was relatively unspecific initially, but discrimination of causal and delayed control events improved with exposure to multiple events. Experience seems to affect the causal illusion even over a short timeframe; the idea of 'one-trial causality' may be somewhat misleading. Regardless of such effects on the absolute level of responses, the different measures showed similar patterns of variation with the spatio-temporal configuration and type of motion. The good fit of ratings and reports validates much recent work in this area.
米乔特认为，即使在二维移动形状的展示中，我们也能在无需推理或学习参与的情况下感知因果关系。两项研究将这一系列工作从机械因果关系的感知扩展到了社会因果关系的感知。我们将口头报告与因果关系的结构化评分进行比较，以更好地理解感知因果关系在多大程度上是自发出现的，或者取决于指示或情境。共有120名成年观察者（主要实验中有72名，初始实验中有48名）观看了12个（或8个）不同的电脑动画，形状A向上移动到形状B，然后形状B又移开。动画在形状的时间和空间关系、以及它们是刚性移动还是以类似动物的非刚性方式移动方面进行了析因变化。在自由报告和评分中都出现了社会因果关系和物理因果关系的印象。对物理因果关系的感知强于对社会因果关系的感知，尤其是在自由报告中。婴儿和儿童中没有出现这种性质的差异，所以这种不对称可能反映了习得的知识。物理因果关系最初相对不具特异性，但随着接触多个事件，对因果事件和延迟控制事件的辨别能力有所提高。即使在短时间内，经验似乎也会影响因果错觉；“一次性因果关系”的概念可能有点误导性。无论这些影响对反应的绝对水平如何，不同的测量方法都显示出与时空配置和运动类型相似的变化模式。评分和报告的良好拟合验证了该领域最近的许多工作。
