The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, USA.
Brown University, Providence, USA.
Psychon Bull Rev. 2017 Oct;24(5):1548-1554. doi: 10.3758/s13423-017-1351-3.
Causal learning in childhood is a dynamic and collaborative process of explanation and exploration within complex physical and social environments. Understanding how children learn causal knowledge requires examining how they update beliefs about the world given novel information and studying the processes by which children learn in collaboration with caregivers, educators, and peers. The objective of this article is to review evidence for how children learn causal knowledge by explaining and exploring in collaboration with others. We review three examples of causal learning in social contexts, which elucidate how interaction with others influences causal learning. First, we consider children's explanation-seeking behaviors in the form of "why" questions. Second, we examine parents' elaboration of meaning about causal relations. Finally, we consider parents' interactive styles with children during free play, which constrains how children explore. We propose that the best way to understand children's causal learning in social context is to combine results from laboratory and natural interactive informal learning environments.
儿童时期的因果学习是一个在复杂的物理和社会环境中进行解释和探索的动态和协作过程。理解儿童如何学习因果知识需要考察他们如何根据新信息更新对世界的信念，并研究儿童如何在与照顾者、教育者和同伴合作的过程中学习。本文的目的是回顾通过与他人解释和探索来学习因果知识的证据。我们回顾了三个社会背景下的因果学习的例子，这些例子阐明了与他人的互动如何影响因果学习。首先，我们考虑了儿童以“为什么”问题形式的寻求解释的行为。其次，我们考察了父母对因果关系的意义的阐述。最后，我们考虑了父母在自由游戏中与孩子的互动方式，这限制了孩子的探索。我们认为，要了解儿童在社会背景下的因果学习，最好的方法是结合实验室和自然互动非正式学习环境的结果。
