How infants learn about people and object causal action

婴儿如何了解人和物体的因果行为

• 批准号: 10724751
• 负责人: Deon Terrel Benton
• 金额: $ 15.85万
• 依托单位: VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-01 至 2025-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10724751
• 关键词: Age; Age Months; Association Learning; Behavior; Behavioral; Birth; Body part; Childhood; Cognitive; Computer Models; Computers; Development; Diagnosis; Event; Experimental Designs; Experimental Models; Eye; Goals; Human; Individual; Infant; Intervention; Knowledge; Knowledge acquisition; Learning; Leg; Life; Methods; Modeling; Pattern; Perception; Persons; Physicians; Property; Psychologist; Research; Risk; Scientist; Stimulus; Surface; System; Testing; Time; Work; age effect; age group; animation; artificial neural network; autism spectrum disorder; base; cognitive development; computational network modeling; design; experimental study; habituation; improved; innovation; insight; interest; learning outcome; novel; pediatrician; response; social deficits; theories; timeline

PROJECT SUMMARY Causal perception—or the ability to see and appreciate simple causal relations in the world—is a cornerstone of early cognitive development and is what enables human beings to understand how the world works and how effectively to navigate it. Despite extensive research on causal perception—which has tended to use simple, Billiard-ball-like launching sequences in which some objects cause other objects to move—surprisingly little is known about when or how infants learn about the causal properties of people and inanimate objects. For example, at what point during the first year of life and by what developmental mechanism do infants learn that people can cause other agents to act and move either at a distance or on direct contact, whereas inanimate objects require contact to act and move? This project is designed to test two competitive theories for when and how infants acquire this knowledge. According to the Core Knowledge perspective, infants are born with “core systems” that enable them to know from birth (or shortly thereafter) that people and objects possess distinct causal properties. According to the Associative Learning perspective, infants come to know—rather than are born knowing—about people and object causal action via domain-general associative learning. This project is innovative because it will be the first to use multiple, converging methods—namely, behavioral experiments and neural network computational modeling—to elucidate the developmental timetable as well as developmental mechanism by which infants learn about people and object causal action. This project will also be the first directly to test which of two competing mechanistic theories explains infants’ knowledge about human and object causal action. Study 1 will establish when or the developmental timetable by which infants acquire this knowledge by testing infants between 4 and 11 months of age. The Core Knowledge perspective predicts that this knowledge should be present from the earliest ages tested, whereas the Associative Learning perspective predicts that this knowledge develops sometime during the first year of life. Study 2 and the computational model will directly test whether core systems or an associative-learning mechanism underlies infants’ knowledge about people and object causal action. This project has the potential to advance our knowledge and understanding of the origins and cognitive bases of early knowledge and the results from the completed project may have significant implications for physicians interested in improving the learning outcomes for individuals at risk for severe social deficits such as individuals diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder.

项目摘要 因果知觉--或者说看到和欣赏世界上简单因果关系的能力--是人类认知的基石。 早期的认知发展，是什么使人类能够理解世界是如何运作的， 尽管对因果感知的广泛研究-倾向于使用简单的， 台球般的发射序列，其中一些对象导致其他对象移动-令人惊讶的是， 知道婴儿何时或如何学习人和无生命物体的因果属性。为 例如，在生命的第一年，婴儿通过什么样的发育机制学习， 人可以使其他代理人的行动和移动，无论是在距离或直接接触，而无生命的 物体需要接触才能动作和移动该项目旨在测试两个竞争理论， 婴儿是如何获得这些知识的根据核心知识的观点，婴儿出生时就具有“核心知识”， 系统”，使他们能够从出生（或出生后不久）就知道人和物体具有独特的 因果属性根据联想学习的观点，婴儿是逐渐了解的，而不是出生的 通过领域一般联想学习了解人和对象的因果行为。这个项目是创新的 因为它将是第一个使用多种融合方法的实验，即行为实验和神经实验。 网络计算模型-阐明发育时间表和发育机制 婴儿通过它了解人和物体的因果行为。这个项目也将是第一个直接测试， 两种相互竞争的机械论解释了婴儿关于人和物体因果行为的知识。研究 1将通过测试婴儿来确定婴儿获得这些知识的时间或发展时间表 在4到11个月大之间。核心知识的观点预测，这种知识应该存在 从最早的年龄测试，而联想学习的角度预测，这种知识的发展， 在生命的第一年。研究2和计算模型将直接测试核心系统是否 或者是一种联想学习机制构成了婴儿关于人和物体因果行为的知识的基础。这 该项目有可能促进我们对早期人类起源和认知基础的认识和理解。 知识和完成项目的结果可能对感兴趣的医生有重要意义 在改善有严重社会缺陷风险的个人的学习成果方面， 患有自闭症谱系障碍