1. Theory: As children develop they become more able to use causal relationship (as opposed to feature commonality) when they use inductive reasoning. Experiment 1: Will five year-olds use causal reasoning? Participants: 36 five year-olds, 36 eight and nine year- olds, 36 psychology undergrads; approximately equal split between boys and girls, children from a middle class background in U.S. Procedure: Experiment 1: Will five year-olds use causal reasoning? Participants: 36 five year-olds, 36 eight and nine year- olds, 36 psychology undergrads; approximately equal split between boys and girls, children from a middle class background in U.S. Procedure: Experiment 2: Participants: Adults performed at ceiling in E.1, so they were taken out. 32 five year-olds, 32 eight year- olds; approx. equal split boy/girl, middle class from U.S. Procedure: Same as E. 1, except statements were made about the non-causal features in each base and half of the participants heard the causal pair together before the non-causal Experiment 2: Participants: Adults performed at ceiling in E.1, so they were taken out. 32 five year-olds, 32 eight year- olds; approx. equal split boy/girl, middle class from U.S. Procedure: Same as E. 1, except statements were made about the non-causal features in each base and half of the participants heard the causal pair together before the non-causal Experiment 3: Participants: 72 five year-olds, 72 eight and nine year-olds middle class in Australia, 72 psychology undergrads Procedure: Random assignment to explicit or non- explicit induction condition; attribute base and causal base; similar test set-up as E. 1 and 2. Experiment 3: Participants: 72 five year-olds, 72 eight and nine year-olds middle class in Australia, 72 psychology undergrads Procedure: Random assignment to explicit or non- explicit induction condition; attribute base and causal base; similar test set-up as E. 1 and 2. Participants alone with researcher. Bases read, causal relationship had attention drawn to it in each base, line drawings further explained; after Inductive test, asked to explain. Responses coded as causal or other. Experiment 4: Participants: 36 five year-olds, 36 eight to nine year-olds, middle class Australia, 36 psych undergrads. Procedure: Same as E. 3, but a thematic or temporal link would be given between attribute features. Experiment 4: Participants: 36 five year-olds, 36 eight to nine year-olds, middle class Australia, 36 psych undergrads. Procedure: Same as E. 3, but a thematic or temporal link would be given between attribute features. Hayes, B. and Thompson, S. (2007). Causal relations and feature similarity in children’s inductive reasoning. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 136 (3), 470 – 484. reviewed by Brandy Quinn 5/27/09 Very Summarized Results Even five year olds use causal reasoning, but at 8 and 9 you see a preference for it even in conflict with attribute similarities that carry the same weight. Very Summarized Results Even five year olds use causal reasoning, but at 8 and 9 you see a preference for it even in conflict with attribute similarities that carry the same weight. Strengths/Weaknesses (+)4 experiment design answered both the “do they” and “to what extent” questions (-) fairly homogenous group, control makes it hard to see “real life” reasoning Strengths/Weaknesses (+)4 experiment design answered both the “do they” and “to what extent” questions (-) fairly homogenous group, control makes it hard to see “real life” reasoning Strong Attribute Connections Causal connections