How infants learn about people and object causal action

婴儿如何了解人和物体的因果行为

• 批准号: 10724751
• 负责人: Deon Terrel Benton
• 金额: $ 15.85万
• 依托单位: VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-01 至 2025-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10724751
• 关键词: Age; Age Months; Association Learning; Behavior; Behavioral; Birth; Body part; Childhood; Cognitive; Computer Models; Computers; Development; Diagnosis; Event; Experimental Designs; Experimental Models; Eye; Goals; Human; Individual; Infant; Intervention; Knowledge; Knowledge acquisition; Learning; Leg; Life; Methods; Modeling; Pattern; Perception; Persons; Physicians; Property; Psychologist; Research; Risk; Scientist; Stimulus; Surface; System; Testing; Time; Work; age effect; age group; animation; artificial neural network; autism spectrum disorder; base; cognitive development; computational network modeling; design; experimental study; habituation; improved; innovation; insight; interest; learning outcome; novel; pediatrician; response; social deficits; theories; timeline

PROJECT SUMMARY Causal perception—or the ability to see and appreciate simple causal relations in the world—is a cornerstone of early cognitive development and is what enables human beings to understand how the world works and how effectively to navigate it. Despite extensive research on causal perception—which has tended to use simple, Billiard-ball-like launching sequences in which some objects cause other objects to move—surprisingly little is known about when or how infants learn about the causal properties of people and inanimate objects. For example, at what point during the first year of life and by what developmental mechanism do infants learn that people can cause other agents to act and move either at a distance or on direct contact, whereas inanimate objects require contact to act and move? This project is designed to test two competitive theories for when and how infants acquire this knowledge. According to the Core Knowledge perspective, infants are born with “core systems” that enable them to know from birth (or shortly thereafter) that people and objects possess distinct causal properties. According to the Associative Learning perspective, infants come to know—rather than are born knowing—about people and object causal action via domain-general associative learning. This project is innovative because it will be the first to use multiple, converging methods—namely, behavioral experiments and neural network computational modeling—to elucidate the developmental timetable as well as developmental mechanism by which infants learn about people and object causal action. This project will also be the first directly to test which of two competing mechanistic theories explains infants’ knowledge about human and object causal action. Study 1 will establish when or the developmental timetable by which infants acquire this knowledge by testing infants between 4 and 11 months of age. The Core Knowledge perspective predicts that this knowledge should be present from the earliest ages tested, whereas the Associative Learning perspective predicts that this knowledge develops sometime during the first year of life. Study 2 and the computational model will directly test whether core systems or an associative-learning mechanism underlies infants’ knowledge about people and object causal action. This project has the potential to advance our knowledge and understanding of the origins and cognitive bases of early knowledge and the results from the completed project may have significant implications for physicians interested in improving the learning outcomes for individuals at risk for severe social deficits such as individuals diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder.

项目概要 因果感知——或者说看到和理解世界上简单因果关系的能力——是认知的基石。 早期认知发展，使人类能够理解世界如何运作以及如何运作 尽管对因果感知进行了广泛的研究，但它倾向于使用简单的、 类似于台球的发射序列，其中一些物体导致其他物体移动——令人惊讶的是几乎没有 了解婴儿何时或如何了解人和无生命物体的因果特性。 例如，婴儿在生命第一年的什么时候以及通过什么发育机制学习 人们可以使其他代理人在远处或直接接触时采取行动和移动，而无生命的 物体需要接触才能行动和移动？ 该项目旨在测试两种竞争理论，即何时和移动。 婴儿如何获得这些知识 根据核心知识的观点，婴儿生来就有“核心”。 系统”使他们从出生（或出生后不久）就知道人和物体拥有独特的 根据联想学习的观点，婴儿是逐渐认识的，而不是出生的。 通过领域通用联想学习了解人和物体的因果行为这个项目是创新的。 因为它将是第一个使用多种聚合方法的方法，即行为实验和神经实验 网络计算建模——阐明发展时间表和发展机制 婴儿通过它来了解人和物体的因果行为，这个项目也将是第一个直接测试的项目。 两种相互竞争的机械理论解释了婴儿关于人类和物体因果行为的知识。 1 将确定婴儿通过测试婴儿获得这些知识的时间或发育时间表 核心知识观点预测，这些知识应该在 4 到 11 个月大的时候出现。 从最早的测试年龄开始，而联想学习的观点预测这种知识会发展 在生命第一年的某个时候，研究 2 和计算模型将直接测试核心系统是否存在。 或联想学习机制是婴儿关于人和物体因果行为的知识的基础。 该项目有潜力增进我们对早期人类起源和认知基础的认识和理解 已完成项目的知识和结果可能对感兴趣的医生产生重大影响 改善面临严重社会缺陷风险的个人（例如被诊断出患有严重社会缺陷的个人）的学习成果 患有自闭症谱系障碍。