Induction, Overhypothesis, and the Origin of Abstract Knowledge: Evidence From 9-Month-Old Infants
Induction, Overhypothesis, and the Origin of Abstract Knowledge: Evidence From 9-Month-Old Infants
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DOI：
10.1177/0956797610388810
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发表时间：
2010-12-01
影响因子：
8.2
通讯作者：
Xu, Fei
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Dewar, Kathryn M.;Xu, Fei
人类认知取决于从有限证据中提取可概括知识的能力。一种归纳学习的一种类型，厌恶的形成，使学习者可以推断出使他们超出直接经验的限制，从而导致了抽象知识的创造。这种能力的发展根源尚待研究。我们报告了三个实验，研究了9个月大的婴儿是否能够形成过度流动性。我们的结果表明，当有关于某些类别中一些对象的证据时，婴儿通常就类别形成二阶概括。这些发现提供了证据表明，婴儿具有归纳学习的强大机制 - 可以应用于许多领域的机制，并且可以解释以后许多归纳偏见的发展。
Human cognition relies on the ability to extract generalizable knowledge from limited evidence. One type of inductive learning, overhypothesis formation, allows learners to make inferences that take them beyond the limits of direct experience, leading to the creation of abstract knowledge. The developmental roots of this ability have yet to be investigated. We report three experiments examining whether 9-month-old infants are capable of forming overhypotheses. Our results show that when given evidence about a few objects in some category, infants formed a second-order generalization about categories in general. These findings provide evidence that infants possess a powerful mechanism for inductive learning-a mechanism that may be applied to many domains and that can account for the development of many inductive biases later on.