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Concept Availability in the Causal Inferences of Children and Adults
Author(s) -
Ackerman Brian P.,
Silver Dara,
Glickman Ilene
Publication year - 1990
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/j.1467-8624.1990.tb02775.x
Subject(s) - outcome (game theory) , premise , inference , psychology , object (grammar) , comprehension , causal inference , sentence , cognitive psychology , social psychology , linguistics , artificial intelligence , computer science , statistics , philosophy , mathematics , mathematical economics
What supplies the concepts in causal inferences in story comprehension? This question was examined in 5 experiments. Elementary school children and college students listened to stories containing a “premise” sentence describing a character's intent in initiating a series of actions, followed by an unexpected “outcome.” After each story, the subjects were asked inference questions about the reason for the outcome (Experiments 1–4) or asked to explain the outcome (Experiment 5). In the various experiments, the availability of object concepts for an inference was manipulated by providing 0 or 2 clues preceding the outcome, additional filler information that diluted the clue information, a mention of an object in the premise or no mention, and an object title for each story or no title. The results suggested that the availability of an object concept in sentences prior to the outcome was a critical determinant of whether an object inference occurred, especially for children. Given availability, the thematic prominence of the object influences whether the object will be used in an inference.