The Role of Explanation in Causal Reasoning and Categorization

儿童、成年人和科学家都面临着一个共同的问题：为什么？我们想知道为什么人们会有特定的行为方式，为什么物体有特定的属性，以及为什么事件会随着它们的发展而展开。先前的研究表明，存在具有独特性质的不同类型的解释，其中包括诉诸因果机制的机械论解释，以及诉诸功能和目标的功能性解释。例如，老虎身上的条纹可以通过基因和发育的吸引力来解释，或者通过伪装的吸引力来解释。这项拟议的项目调查了这类解释与基本认知过程之间的关系。特别是，研究人员将提出这样一个问题：机械解释和功能解释是否会导致对物体概念化的不同方式，甚至导致表示世界因果结构的不同方式。鉴于解释和理解之间的密切关系，解释可能会对认知产生深远的影响。这项拟议的工作将解决认知心理学中关于因果推理和归类的当代问题，并有可能解决目前关于因果表征的性质以及因果信念和功能在归类中的作用的争议。该项目还与哲学中有关因果关系和解释的问题有关，并将促进跨学科交流。最后，通过揭示不同类型解释的特点和后果，拟议的工作将为关于儿童和成人对科学解释的理解的研究奠定基础，包括为什么一些科学解释特别难理解以及如何克服这一困难。

Children, adults, and scientists alike confront the world with a common question: Why? We wonder why people behave in particular ways, why objects have specific properties, and why events unfold as they do. Previous research suggests that there are different kinds of explanations with unique properties, among them mechanistic explanations that appeal to causal mechanisms, and functional explanations that appeal to functions and goals. For example, a tiger's stripes can be explained mechanistically by appeal to genes and development, or functionally by appeal to camouflage. The proposed project investigates the relationship between these kinds of explanations and basic cognitive processes. In particular, the investigators will ask the question of whether mechanistic and functional explanations lead to different ways of conceptualizing objects, and even to different ways of representing the causal structure of the world. Given the intimate relationship between explanation and understanding, explanations may have far-reaching effects on cognition. The proposed work will address contemporary issues in cognitive psychology concerning causal reasoning and categorization, and has the potential to resolve current controversies concerning the nature of causal representation and the role of causal beliefs and functions in categorization. The project is also of relevance to issues in philosophy regarding causation and explanation, and will foster interdisciplinary communication. Finally, by uncovering the characteristics and consequences of different kinds of explanations, the proposed work will lay the foundations for research concerning children and adults' understanding of scientific explanations, including why some scientific explanations are especially difficult to grasp and how this difficulty can be overcome.