University of Heidelberg, Germany.
Br J Dev Psychol. 2011 Sep;29(Pt 3):357-74. doi: 10.1348/026151009X479547. Epub 2011 Feb 3.
This paper investigates the role of cause and effect relations for infants' learning about artifacts. Two experiments tested whether 12-month-olds categorized a given set of unfamiliar artifacts according to overall similarity and/or according to part similarity, depending on what kind of video demonstration was presented before the start of the categorization task. In both experiments, the actions performed with objects were accompanied by interesting effects but the causal relation between object-structure and effects was teased apart. In one video demonstration (Expt 1), the experimenter used the object part to produce some kind of effect in a causally plausible way. In another video demonstration (Expt 2), the experimenter performed similar actions with the same objects as in Expt 1, followed by the same effects as before. Importantly, however, no plausible cause-effect relation was provided this time. Only infants participating in Expt 1 categorized the set of unfamiliar objects according to part similarity. This finding suggests that 12-month-olds attend to the causal relation between specific object parts and their functional use when categorizing artifacts, rather than merely associating form-characteristics with an interesting effect.
本文探讨了因果关系在婴儿学习人工制品中的作用。两个实验测试了 12 个月大的婴儿是否会根据整体相似性和/或部分相似性对一组陌生的人工制品进行分类，这取决于在分类任务开始之前呈现什么样的视频演示。在两个实验中，物体的动作伴随着有趣的效果，但物体结构和效果之间的因果关系被分开了。在一个视频演示（实验 1）中，实验者以一种看似合理的因果方式使用物体的一部分来产生某种效果。在另一个视频演示（实验 2）中，实验者用与实验 1 中相同的物体进行了类似的动作，然后是与之前相同的效果。然而，重要的是，这次没有提供合理的因果关系。只有参加实验 1 的婴儿根据部分相似性对一组不熟悉的物体进行了分类。这一发现表明，12 个月大的婴儿在对人工制品进行分类时，会关注特定物体部分与其功能用途之间的因果关系，而不仅仅是将形式特征与有趣的效果联系起来。
