• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.243-269
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• 2008

The role of domain-specific causal mechanism information and domain-general conditional probability in young children's causal reasoning on physics and psychology was investigated with the participation of 121 3-year-olds and 121 4-year-olds recruited from seven child care centers in Seoul, Kyonggi Province, and Busan. Children watched moving pictures on physical and psychological phenomena, and were asked to choose an appropriate cause and justify their choice. Results showed that young children's causal reasoning differed depending on domain-specific mechanism. In addition, their causal reasoning on physics and psychology differed by the developmental level of causal mechanism. The interaction of domain-specific mechanism and domain-general conditional probability influenced children's causal reasoning : evident conditional probability between domain-appropriate cause and effect helped children make more inferences based on domain-specific causal mechanism.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.333-354
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• 2008

This study aimed to investigate the role of domain-specific causal mechanism information and domain-general conditional probability in young children's causal reasoning on psychology and biology. Participants were 121 3-year-olds and 121 4-year-olds recruited from seven childcare centers in Seoul, Kyonggi Province, and Busan. After participants watched moving pictures on psychological and biological phenomena, they were asked to choose appropriate cause and justify their choices. Results of this study were as follows: First, young children made different inferences according to domain-specific causal mechanisms. Second, the developmental level of causal mechanisms has a gap between psychology and biology, and biological knowledge was proved to be separate from psychological knowledge during the preschool period. Third, young children's causal reasoning was different depending on the interaction effect of domain-specific mechanisms and domain-general conditional probability: children could make more inferences based on domain-specific causal mechanisms if conditional probability between domain-appropriate cause and effect was evident. To conclude, it can be inferred that the role of domain-specific causal mechanisms and domain-general conditional probability is not competitive but complementary in young children's causal reasoning.