The power of possibility: causal learning, counterfactual reasoning, and pretend play
The power of possibility: causal learning, counterfactual reasoning, and pretend play
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DOI：
10.1098/rstb.2012.0122
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发表时间：
2012-08-05
影响因子：
6.3
通讯作者：
Gopnik, Alison
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Buchsbaum, Daphna;Bridgers, Sophie;Gopnik, Alison
我们认为，在人类进化的不成熟期的延长和强大的和广泛的因果学习机制的出现，特别是因果模型和贝叶斯学习的使用之间的理论联系。我们认为，探索性的童年学习，特别是童年游戏，和因果认知是密切相关的。我们报告一个实证研究证明了这样一个连接假装游戏和反事实因果推理之间的联系。当学龄前儿童被给予关于因果系统的新信息时，他们在考虑关于该系统的反事实和假装游戏时做出了非常相似的推断。即使在控制了年龄、一般认知发展和执行功能的情况下，反事实认知和因果连贯的假装也显著相关。这些发现将一种独特的人类童年游戏形式和一种同样独特的人类因果推理形式联系起来。我们推测，在人类进化过程中，最初用于解决特别重要的生态问题的计算在长期的受保护的不成熟时期得到了更广泛的应用。
We argue for a theoretical link between the development of an extended period of immaturity in human evolution and the emergence of powerful and wide-ranging causal learning mechanisms, specifically the use of causal models and Bayesian learning. We suggest that exploratory childhood learning, childhood play in particular, and causal cognition are closely connected. We report an empirical study demonstrating one such connection-a link between pretend play and counterfactual causal reasoning. Preschool children given new information about a causal system made very similar inferences both when they considered counterfactuals about the system and when they engaged in pretend play about it. Counterfactual cognition and causally coherent pretence were also significantly correlated even when age, general cognitive development and executive function were controlled for. These findings link a distinctive human form of childhood play and an equally distinctive human form of causal inference. We speculate that, during human evolution, computations that were initially reserved for solving particularly important ecological problems came to be used much more widely and extensively during the long period of protected immaturity.