Lagdano, D.A.;
Sloman, S.A.;
(2006)
Time as a guide to cause.
(ELSE Working Papers
196).
ESRC Centre for Economic Learning and Social Evolution: London, UK.
![[thumbnail of 14533.pdf]](https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/style/images/fileicons/application_pdf.png) Preview |
PDF
14533.pdf Download (298kB) |
Abstract
How do people learn causal structure? In two studies we investigated the interplay between temporal order, intervention and covariational cues. In Study 1 temporal order overrode covariation information, leading to spurious causal inferences when the temporal cues were misleading. In Study 2 both temporal order and intervention contributed to accurate causal inference, well beyond that achievable through covariational data alone. Together the studies show that people use both temporal order and interventional cues to infer causal structure, and that these cues dominate the available statistical information. We endorse a hypothesis-driven account of learning, whereby people use cues such as temporal order to generate initial models, and then test these models against the incoming covariational data.
| Type: | Working / discussion paper |
|---|---|
| Title: | Time as a guide to cause |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Publisher version: | http://else.econ.ucl.ac.uk/newweb/papers.php#2006 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Please see http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk/11717/ for the version published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology |
| Keywords: | Causal learning, temporal order, intervention, covariation |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/14533 |
Loading...
Loading...Loading...Loading...Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
