3-081 - The Emergence of Causal Reasoning and Causal Explanations in Childhood: Diverse Definitions and Methodologies

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Whether it be asking social partners for causal information or behaving as mini-scientists through active experimentation, children’s engagement with causal explanation and causal learning shapes the development of reasoning from an early age. This includes how individuals (children and adults) explain certain phenomena – and which phenomena are deemed worthy of explanation to begin with. For instance, in teaching evolution to children, supernatural justifications (e.g., God created everything in its present form) may be given alongside, or even restrict, scientific explanations (e.g., natural selection). This symposium will present findings on the changing nature of basic causal reasoning processes (e.g., learning and explanation) from early childhood through adulthood, using a diverse variety of methodologies.
The first paper uses explanation-seeking curiosity to investigate what determinants drive an individual to seek out causal information in the first place, drawing data from two open-source databases containing common questions among school-aged children and adults. The second paper assesses whether the generation of alternatives (in response to “what if?” prompts) influences children’s ability to detect anomalous data in a causal learning task. The third paper builds on these discussions of question-asking by examining causal reasoning within the scope of parent-child interactions at a science museum, focusing on parents’ and children’s causal language and children’s problem-solving techniques during structured exploration. Along these lines, the final paper considers the types of causal explanations (natural, religious, supernatural) adults and children give when they are confronted with improbable or impossible events and asked to explain why the events could/could not occur.

Sub Unit

• Cognitive Processes

Chair

• Kirsten A Lesage, University of California, Riverside

Individual Presentations

• The Dynamics Between Exploration and Explanation at a Children’s Museum Exhibit - Presenting Author: David Sobel, Brown University; Non-Presenting Author: Susan M Letourneau, New York Hall of Science; Non-Presenting Author: Aiyana K. Willard, Brunell University London; Non-Presenting Author: Garrett Jaeger, University of California, Santa Cruz; Non-Presenting Author: Cristine H Legare, University of Texas at Austin; Non-Presenting Author: Maureen Callanan, University of California, Santa Cruz

• Determinants of Explanation-Seeking Curiosity Across Development - Presenting Author: Emily G. Liquin, Princeton University; Non-Presenting Author: Tania Lombrozo, Princeton University

• Reasoning About Alternative Outcomes Facilitates Anomaly Detection in Preschoolers - Presenting Author: Jae Engle, UCSD; Non-Presenting Author: Hazel Baker-Harvey, UCSD; Non-Presenting Author: Caren Walker, University of California, San Diego

• Children’s Causal Reasoning and Explanations for Why Improbable and Impossible Events Can/Cannot Occur Across Domains - Presenting Author: Kirsten A Lesage, University of California, Riverside; Non-Presenting Author: Rebekah Ann Richert, University of California, Riverside