Selection of Causal Rules

SHULTZ, THOMAS R.; FISHER, GARRY W.; PRATr, CHERYL C.; and RULF, SYBILL. Selection of Causal Rules. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1986, 57, 143-152. As it has been documented that young children have access to a variety of causal rules, a theoretical model was proposed to account for how causal rules are selected. 3 of the rule-selection principles in the model were investigated in a series of 3 experiments. The overriding principle in the model is that one will use generative transmission information if it is available. Among the secondary principles in the model are those of salience and facility. The salience principle is that one will use the rule that has the most perceptually salient source of information. The facility rule specifies that subjects will favor a rule requiring simple information over a rule that requires information too complex for them to process. Empirical support was found for each of these selection principles, as well as for the principle of discriminability, which specifies that any rule that fails to discriminate among possible causes will not be used.