Journal article
Benjamin M. Rottman, D. Gentner, Micah B. Goldwater
Cognitive Sciences, 2012
Cognitive Sciences, 2012
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APA
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Rottman, B. M., Gentner, D., & Goldwater, M. B. (2012). Causal Systems Categories: Differences in Novice and Expert Categorization of Causal Phenomena. Cognitive Sciences.
Chicago/Turabian
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Rottman, Benjamin M., D. Gentner, and Micah B. Goldwater. “Causal Systems Categories: Differences in Novice and Expert Categorization of Causal Phenomena.” Cognitive Sciences (2012).
MLA
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Rottman, Benjamin M., et al. “Causal Systems Categories: Differences in Novice and Expert Categorization of Causal Phenomena.” Cognitive Sciences, 2012.
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@article{benjamin2012a,
title = {Causal Systems Categories: Differences in Novice and Expert Categorization of Causal Phenomena},
year = {2012},
journal = {Cognitive Sciences},
author = {Rottman, Benjamin M. and Gentner, D. and Goldwater, Micah B.}
}
Abstract
We investigated the understanding of causal systems categories--categories defined by common causal structure rather than by common domain content--among college students. We asked students who were either novices or experts in the physical sciences to sort descriptions of real-world phenomena that varied in their causal structure (e.g., negative feedback vs. causal chain) and in their content domain (e.g., economics vs. biology). Our hypothesis was that there would be a shift from domain-based sorting to causal sorting with increasing expertise in the relevant domains. This prediction was borne out: the novice groups sorted primarily by domain and the expert group sorted by causal category. These results suggest that science training facilitates insight about causal structures.
