Young Michael E, Falmier Olga
Department of Psychology, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL 62901-6502, USA.
Q J Exp Psychol (Hove). 2008 Sep;61(9):1356-70. doi: 10.1080/17470210701595522.
It has been widely reported that spatial contiguity is important to judgements of causality involving one object launching another [Michotte's "launching effect" (1963, 1991)]. The present study examined the impact of different types of spatial markers on causal judgements of a distal launch (one object approaching other, stopping short of it, and the second object subsequently moving along the same trajectory). The spatial markers were objects that either partially or completely bridged the spatial gap between two objects (Experiment 1), or they were dashed lines that marked the stopping location of the first object or the starting location of the second object (Experiment 2). The presence of either objects or dashed lines could produce higher causal ratings, but the location of the marker mattered. The results suggest that altering a cause's ability to predict when the effect would occur (via a spatial marker) and the presence of a conduit for energy transmission have independent effects on causal judgements of object interaction.
已有广泛报道称，空间连续性对于涉及一个物体推动另一个物体的因果判断很重要[米乔特的“推动效应”(1963年，1991年)]。本研究考察了不同类型的空间标记对远距离推动（一个物体接近另一个物体，在其前方停下，随后第二个物体沿相同轨迹移动）因果判断的影响。空间标记是部分或完全弥合两个物体之间空间间隙的物体（实验1），或者是标记第一个物体停止位置或第二个物体起始位置的虚线（实验2）。物体或虚线的存在都可能产生更高的因果评分，但标记的位置很重要。结果表明，改变原因预测结果何时发生的能力（通过空间标记）以及能量传递管道的存在对物体相互作用的因果判断有独立影响。
