Causal reasoning
In my pre-modeling days, I worked primarily in four areas of cognitive development: causal reasoning, moral reasoning, early theories of mind, and the development of humor.
A series of experiments on causal reasoning in children identified many of the essential heuristics used in attributing simple physical effects to their causes. These heuristics include generative transmission, temporal and spatial contiguity, covariation, and similarity. The generative transmission heuristic focuses on the actual causal mechanisms by which an effect is produced. As such, it deals with the relevance of the causal transmission to the effect, and with the directionality, reach, and potency of this transmission. Many of the heuristics identified in this psychological research were adopted into computational models of causal reasoning (e.g., Anderson, Lewis, Pazzani). The priority of causal mechanism over temporal, spatial, and statistical information is an enduring discovery.
A series of experiments on causal reasoning in children identified many of the essential heuristics used in attributing simple physical effects to their causes. These heuristics include generative transmission, temporal and spatial contiguity, covariation, and similarity. The generative transmission heuristic focuses on the actual causal mechanisms by which an effect is produced. As such, it deals with the relevance of the causal transmission to the effect, and with the directionality, reach, and potency of this transmission. Many of the heuristics identified in this psychological research were adopted into computational models of causal reasoning (e.g., Anderson, Lewis, Pazzani). The priority of causal mechanism over temporal, spatial, and statistical information is an enduring discovery.
- Bes, B., Sloman, S., Lucas, C. G., & Raufaste, E. (2012). Non-Bayesian inference: Causal structure trumps correlation. Cognitive Science, 36(7), 1178-1203.
- Mendelson, R., & Shultz, T. R. (1976). Covariation and temporal contiguity as principles of causal inference in young children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 22, 408-412.
- Shultz, T. R., & Mendelson, R. (1975). The use of covariation as a principle of causal analysis. Child Development, 46, 394-399.
- Shultz, T. R. (1982). Rules of causal attribution. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 47(1, Serial No. 194).
- Shultz, T. R., Altmann, E., & Asselin, J. (1986). Judging causal priority. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 4, 67-74.
- Shultz, T. R., & Coddington, M. (1981). Development of the concepts of energy conservation and entropy. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 31, 131-153.
- Shultz, T. R., Fisher, G. W., Pratt, C. C., & Rulf, S. (1986). Selection of causal rules. Child Development, 57, 143-152.
- Shultz, T. R., Pardo, S., & Altmann, E. (1982). Young children's use of transitive inference in causal chains. British Journal of Psychology, 73, 235-241.
- Zelazo, P. D., & Shultz, T. R. (1989). Concepts of potency and resistance in causal prediction. Child Development, 60, 1307-1315.
