posted on 2009-04-23, 00:00authored byLauren Krogh
Research has shown that infants perceive causality beginning at the age of 6 months.
However, a recent study demonstrated that 4½-month-old infants perceive causality when
they are given the ability to perform causal actions by wearing red mittens covered in
Velcro that attach to Velcro on green toy balls. The current experiments examined
whether the perceptually similarity between the objects infants interacted with and the
stimuli used in the test events accounted for infant’s perception of causality in these
events. Results show that the particular objects used in the action task do not constrain
4½-month-old infants’ perception of causality in simple launching events. The data also
reveal that 3-month-old infants do not respond to simple launching events in terms of
either causality or continuity, following action experience. Results are discussed in terms
of the developmental progression of causal perception, as well as possible mechanisms
underlying this development.