Study title

Data resulting from three sets of experiments with children to assess cue competition effects of blocking in causal learning using a purpose-built toy robot.

Learning about what objects or events can cause other events - known as causal learning - is one of the fundamental challenges children face as they find out about the world. There is considerable debate over how best to characterise how such knowledge is acquired, and whether or not young children's learning processes resemble those of mature thinkers. Some psychological theories of causal learning model such learning in terms of the formation of simple associations between representations of events, and it has been sometimes assumed that such associations can be formed relatively effortlessly. However, recently it has been argued that even learning basic causal relationships may involve more complex processes than traditionally assumed. In particular, it has been suggested that causal learning usually requires actively reasoning about the relationship between different events, and that this reasoning process may be demanding and effortful. If this is the case, then it may be that there are developmental changes in children's ability to engage in causal reasoning that are related to their reasoning abilities and to the extent to which they have the capacity to hold in mind and process information. This project will examine such developmental changes and how they relate to other cognitive abilities.