Going beyond the evidence: abstract laws and preschoolers' responses to anomalous data.

摘要: Given minimal evidence about novel objects, children might learn only relationships among the specific entities, or they make a more abstract inference, positing classes of entities and relations that hold those classes. Here we show preschoolers (mean: 57 months) can use sparse data perceptually unique objects to infer physical causal laws. These newly inferred laws were robust potentially anomalous evidence; in face apparent counter-evidence, (correctly) posited existence an unobserved object rather than revise This suggests children's ability robust, principles does not depend on extensive prior experience but occur rapidly, on-line, tandem with inferences relations.