The Development of the Young Child's Ability to Anticipate the Outcomes of Simple Causal Events

KEIL, FRANK. The Development of the Young Child's Ability to Anticipate the Outcomes of Simple Causal Events. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1979, 50, 455-462. Children at 12 and 232 years observed events consisting of the removal of crucial support blocks from simple block structures. It was proposed that the child's causal intuitions were related to the ability to anticipate the outcomes of the events. The child's anticipation ability was measured by the degree of surprise observed on certain trick trials in which concealed magnets prevented the expected collapse. While an event requiring knowledge of one physical law to anticipate collapse was surprising to both ages, an event requiring an additional second law was not surprising to either age (but was surprising to older ages). When the simpler event was screened from view, only the 2n3-year-olds were surprised at the causal incompatibility between the initial and final conditions. These findings are interpreted within a component-theory framework.