Toddlers infer higher-order relational principles in causal learning.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Development
• Developmental Psychology
• Causal Inference

Background:

• Young children infer object-specific causal properties.
• The ability to infer higher-order relational causal principles is less understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate relational inferences in causal tasks among 18- to 30-month-old children.
• To determine if children can infer and apply higher-order causal principles.

Main Methods:

• Three experiments were conducted with 18- to 30-month-old children.
• Participants engaged in a causal task assessing relational inferences.
• A revised relational match-to-sample task was administered.

Main Results:

• Children inferred a higher-order relational causal principle from limited observations.
• This inference guided their actions to achieve novel causal outcomes.
• Children succeeded on a task difficult for nonhuman primates.

Conclusions:

• 18- to 30-month-olds demonstrate sophisticated relational and causal reasoning.
• Findings offer insights into the nature and evolutionary origins of relational reasoning.
• Early developing relational causal understanding may be a key human cognitive trait.