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Reflecting on Scientific Thinking: Children's Understanding of the Hypothesis‐Evidence Relation
Author(s) -
Ruffman Ted,
Perner Josef,
Olson David R.,
Doherty Martin
Publication year - 1993
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.1467-8624.1993.tb04203.x
Subject(s) - psychology , developmental psychology , object (grammar) , character (mathematics) , relation (database) , alternative hypothesis , cognitive psychology , cognitive development , social psychology , cognition , null hypothesis , linguistics , philosophy , statistics , geometry , mathematics , database , computer science , neuroscience
3 experiments were carried out to examine children's understanding of the role of covariation evidence in hypothesis formation. Previous research suggested that it is not until 8 to 11 years of age that children begin to understand how a given pattern of covariation supports a particular hypothesis about which factor is causally responsible for an observed effect. Experiments 1 to 3 employed a different (fake evidence) technique than previous research and showed that by 6 years of age most children understand how evidence would lead a story character to form a different hypothesis than the subject's own. Experiment 3 showed that most 6‐ and young 7‐year‐olds understand how a character's future actions (e.g., choice of an object) and predictions of future outcomes depend on the hypothesis he or she holds.