[DSRP Evidence](https://dsrpevidence.org/)

# The cradle of causal reasoning: newborns’ preference for physical causality

Mascalzoni et al., 2013, Developmental Science — Human Development

Patterns: [Relationships](https://dsrpevidence.org/pattern/relationships)

## In short

This study demonstrates a newborn’s visual perception of causal relationships, and it’s similarity to that same mechanism found in adults.

## What they found (results)

The newborns showed a significant preference for the causal event over the non-causal ones. This experiment resulted in the conclusion that “the spatial continuity of trajectory between the motion of the two objects appears to be crucial in determining newborns’ preference.” The results showed that the newborns were able to Distinguish between the event and its inverted form, and they still showed a preference for the causal events.

## What they set out to do (purpose)

How humans come to perceive causal relationships.

## In more detail

Additional research conducted by Mascalzoni et. al. 2013 explored “the question of how humans come to perceive causal relationships [that] has long been a challenge both for philosophers and psychologists.” They studied the presence and use of causal reasoning in newborn children in three experiments. The first experiment tested whether newborn babies were able to Distinguish and have a preference for a causal vs. a non-causal event. The causal stimuli presented was a two object event with apparent causal motion with spatial and temporal continuity, while the non-causal stimuli was characterized by temporal discontinuity. They said that, “the delay event, in fact, was identical to the launching one except for the presence of a 1-s delay between the time of contact and the motion of the second object.” The ages of the newborns ranged from 8 to 71 hours old. A preferential looking task was used to gather data, and while measuring, distractions were minimized to the best of their ability. The newborns showed a significant preference for the causal event over the non-causal ones. For the second experiment, the stimuli were the same, except for the spatial parameters. “Both stimuli in Experiment 2, in fact, were characterized by a discontinuity between the trajectory of the two objects involved in each event.” The procedure was identical to experiment one. This experiment resulted in the conclusion that “the spatial continuity of trajectory between the motion of the two objects appears to be crucial in determining newborns’ preference.” For the third experiment, the purpose of the experiment was to test the role of the “temporal sequence between the motion of the two objects in triggering newborns’ preference.” The causal event was the same as in experiment one. The non-causal Relationship differed in that object B moved first, then object A moved. The non-causal stimuli is inverted. The procedure was identical to experiment one. The results showed that the newborns were able to Distinguish between the event and its inverted form, and they still showed a preference for the causal events. They wrote that,

“overall, newborns seem to be sensitive to the additive effect of a set of perceptual cues (i.e. temporal continuity between the motion of the two objects involved in the event, continuity of trajectory between the motion of the two objects, and the sequence of the displacements of the two objects) which are crucial in determining perception of physical causality in adults.” This study demonstrates a newborn’s visual perception of causal relationships, and it’s similarity to that same mechanism found in adults.

## Abstract

Perception of mechanical (i.e. physical) causality, in terms of a cause–effect relationship between two motion events, appears to be a powerful mechanism in our daily experience. In spite of a growing interest in the earliest causal representations, the role of experience in the origin of this sensitivity is still a matter of dispute. Here, we asked the question about the innate origin of causal perception, never tested before at birth. Three experiments were carried out to investigate sensitivity at birth to some visual spatiotemporal cues present in a launching event. Newborn babies, only a few hours old, showed that they significantly preferred a physical causality event (i.e. Michotte's Launching effect) when matched to a delay event (i.e. a delayed launching; Experiment 1) or to a non‐causal event completely identical to the causal one except for the order of the displacements of the two objects involved which was swapped temporally (Experiment 3). This preference for the launching event, moreover, also depended on the continuity of the trajectory between the objects involved in the event (Experiment 2). These results support the hypothesis that the human system possesses an early available, possibly innate basic mechanism to compute causality, such a mechanism being sensitive to the additive effect of certain well‐defined spatiotemporal cues present in the causal event independently of any prior visual experience.

These researchers were not testing DSRP. The finding is theirs; the correspondence to DSRP is drawn by this site.

[Source](https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12018)