Similarity as a Principle of Causal Inference.

SHULTZ, THOMAS R., and RAVINSKY, FRANCES B. Similarity as a Principle of Causal Inference. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1977, 48, 1552-1558. In the absence of information on the spatio-temporal relations between causes and effects, children between 6 and 12 years of age attributed the effects to similar, as opposed to dissimilar, causes. Older children abandoned the similarity principle when it happened to conflict with principles of covariation or temporal contiguity, while younger children appeared to be confused by such conflicts. In these cases of conflict, the principle of temporal contiguity was somewhat more accessible to the younger children than was the principle of covariation.