Non-Humean Indices of Causation in Problem-Solving Situations: Causal Mechanism, Analogous Effects, and the Status of Rival Alternative Accounts.

KoSLOWSKI, BARBARA, and OKAGAKI, LYNN. Non-Humean Indices of Causation in Problem-solving Situations: Causal Mechanism, Analogous Effects, and the Status of Rival Alternative Accounts. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1986, 57, 1100-1108. College students and college-bound 14and 11-year-olds were asked to rate the likelihood that a potentially causal factor was actually involved in bringing about an event. For each potentially causal factor, subjects were presented with information about 1 of the following types of indices: the potential causal factor covaried with the effect, the potential causal factor was associated with effects that were analogous to the effect in question, and a possible causal mechanism could have mediated between the potential causal factor and the effect. For half the subjects, the information was that the indices were present, for half that the indices were absent. Within each of these groups, half the subjects were also told that the usual causes of the effect had been ruled out. Ratings of potential causal factors were higher when each of the 3 types of indices was present and when the usual causes had been ruled out. There were no age differences in the ratings. Information about causal mechanism, analogous effects, and the status of likely rival causes-identified as being important in scientific inquiry-is also relied on by adolescents and by lay adults when reasoning about nonscientific situations.