Becky Beaton

developmental psych | lab manager @VanderbiltU | @ucdavis ‘22

[Becky Beaton @beckymbeaton]

If this sounds interesting, you can read more about the present study and what we found at the link above! Thank you to @DeonTBenton for your help and guidance on this project!

[Becky Beaton @beckymbeaton]

I'm so excited to share my first first-authored paper that will be included as a proceeding for Cognitive Science Society (summary in the comments 😊)! https://t.co/sCVHjtLUDc

[Becky Beaton @beckymbeaton]

The present study extends that work by using the blicket detector paradigm which has been used to study causal reasoning in children, including a control condition, and fitting an associative learning and Bayesian inference model to elucidate underlying cognitive mechanisms.

[Becky Beaton @beckymbeaton]

Simms et al. (2012) began to examine this in children but the study is limited in a number of ways.

[Becky Beaton @beckymbeaton]

If this is the belief, it might be expected that someone discount a second object (B) as a cause after observing that the first object (A) produced the same effect as the two objects together (A and B).

[Becky Beaton @beckymbeaton]

For example, do children assume that two causes together produce a larger effect than that produced by either of the causes alone (outcome additivity)?

[Becky Beaton @beckymbeaton]

One factor that has been shown to impact backwards blocking abilities in adults, but has only been studied once in children (Simms et al., 2012), is a person’s beliefs about how a causal system works.

[Becky Beaton @beckymbeaton]

However, there is less research that has looked at what factors influence children’s capacity to do this, which in turn could give more insight into what mechanism children use to reason about these events.

[Becky Beaton @beckymbeaton]

Currently the consensus is that backwards blocking emerges between 4- and 6- years of age, depending on how it is operationalized.

[Becky Beaton @beckymbeaton]

Backwards blocking can be predicted by Bayesian inference, but not by the simplest associative learning models.

[Becky Beaton @beckymbeaton]

The reason backwards blocking is studied is because it can help explain the cognitive mechanisms that underpin causal reasoning - the two main cognitive mechanisms suggested to be at play are associative learning and Bayesian inference.

[Becky Beaton @beckymbeaton]

Backwards blocking refers to the tendency to, after observing that two (or more objects) together produce some effect and then that one of the objects produces the effect alone, discount the first object as a cause.

[Becky Beaton @beckymbeaton]

Causal reasoning is crucial for navigating through the world. One type of causal reasoning that has been studied extensively is backwards blocking, a type of retrospective reevaluation.

[Becky Beaton @beckymbeaton]

Second, it examined whether the underlying cognitive mechanisms that children use to engage in this form of reasoning differ for different "factors" and across ages

[Becky Beaton @beckymbeaton]

Broadly, this project had two goals. First, it assessed what factors affect children’s ability to engage in a particular type of causal reasoning called backwards blocking.

[Becky Beaton @beckymbeaton]

@MDeBoltC @DeonTBenton Thank you! 💛

[Becky Beaton @beckymbeaton]

@DeonTBenton Thank you for all of your guidance and support!

[Becky Beaton @beckymbeaton]

@DeonTBenton I’m so excited to be part of this work!

[Becky Beaton @beckymbeaton]

@GabReimann @DeonTBenton Thank you, will do!

[Becky Beaton @beckymbeaton]

@DeonTBenton Thank you for the warm welcome - I'm thrilled to be working with you in the lab manager role and helping get the lab off the ground!