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Explaining Constrains Causal Learning in Childhood
Author(s) -
Walker Caren M.,
Lombrozo Tania,
Williams Joseph J.,
Rafferty An.,
Gopnik Alison
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/cdev.12590
Subject(s) - psychology , developmental psychology , child development , cognitive psychology , childhood development
Three experiments investigate how self‐generated explanation influences children's causal learning. Five‐year‐olds ( N = 114) observed data consistent with two hypotheses and were prompted to explain or to report each observation. In Study 1, when making novel generalizations, explainers were more likely to favor the hypothesis that accounted for more observations. In Study 2, explainers favored a hypothesis that was consistent with prior knowledge. Study 3 pitted a hypothesis that accounted for more observations against a hypothesis consistent with prior knowledge. Explainers were more likely to base generalizations on prior knowledge. Findings suggest that attempts to explain drive children to evaluate hypotheses using features of “good” explanations, or those supporting generalizations with broad scope, as informed by children's prior knowledge and observations.