SP 1: Conceptual Development and Causal Reasoning Flashcards
Week 1
development of concepts in children
1st: ability to distinguish between physical concepts (teddy vs. bottle)
later: ability to understand abstract concepts (measurement, time)
categorisation
the ability to treat a set of things as somehow equivalent
- form of inductive reasoning
- categories allow for: 1) prediction, 2) communication, 3) abstract thought
3 levels of inclusiveness (based on how many features in common)
1) superordinate (animal)
2) basic (dog)
3) subordinate (labrador)
categorisation and neuroscientific insights
- mental representation
- multimodal inferences
categorisation is supported by learning mechanisms of neural information coding, which allows us to form summaries as basis for conscious perception
mental representation
summarizing inputs, to handle large chunks of information
prototypes
highly typical basic objects
measuring categorisation
1) looking tasks (using habituation)
2) sequential touching tasks
3) sorting and matching-to-sample tasks
1) looking task (habituation)
‘respond to things the same way’
- method: non-verbal looking preference paradigm
- age: 3-4 months
- categorisation based on perception
after habituation, infants look longer at new animal (at basis level)
2) sequential touching tasks: prototypical objects
‘respond to things the same way’
- method: contrasts between toys
(basic level: cars vs. aeroplanes
superordinate/global level: animal vs. vehicle)
- 13 m/o: basic level (cars vs aeroplanes)
- 16-20 m/o: basic and superordinate level (animal vs. vehicle)
2) sequential touching tasks: non-prototypical objects
‘respond to things the same way’
- 13 m/o: no systematic behavior
- 16 m/o: basic level
- 20 m/o: no systematic behavior
- 24 m/o: superordinate level
- 28 m/o: basic and superordinate level
effect of typicality
performance on prototypical objects sets was greater than on non-prototypical object sets
3) sorting and matching to sample tasks
‘put things in the same pile’
- 19 m/o can do basic and superordinate level (but better at basic)
- 4-5 y/o performed well but more difficulty distinguishing inanimate from animate objects
which level develops first?
1) Rosch: Prototype Theory
2) Quinn and Mandler: Children find it easier to distinguish vehicles from animals, than dogs from horses
superordinate: based on knowledge
basic: based on perceivable features
1) Rosch: prototype theory
Basic level emerges first
2) Quinn and Mandler: easier to distinguish vehicles from animals than dogs from horses
Superordinate level emerges first
language: thematic relations
bees go with honey
- objects of categories are often seen together with objects of other categories
language: categorical relations
bees go with butterflies
- objects of categories look similar to objects of other categories
biological/non-biological entities and development in children
- 2 day olds can distinguish biological motion light displays from random light displays
- 7-13 y/o showed no age-related differences in brain activity in response to watching biological motion displays
- sensitivity to biological motion related to activity to ‘social brain areas’
- eye-tracking: 14 m/o use biological motion to detect human interaction
anthropocentrism
the understanding of biology emerges out of their understanding of people
ability to categorise develops rapidly in infancy and early childhood:
- from perceptual to conceptual
- from general to specific
- from intuitive to factual
learning how the world works: explaining actions from…
…people: Theory of Mind
…things: causal reasoning
learning by playing
toys: trigger early form of causal reasoning
- if I do X, Y will happen
types of reasoning
1) inductive reasoning
2) deductive reasoning
1) inductive reasoning
specific -> general
- not logically valid, but useful for forming hypotheses
- easier for children than deductive reasoning
