Causal Learning ─ Psychology, Philosophy, And Computation

The 20 studies originated in a series of workshops held by a group of scientists in the three fields between September 2003 and June 2004 at Stanford University. They consider a number of theoretical and research routes to dealing with philosophical problems around determining the causal structure of the world, or even if there is one. The topics include the role of intervention in infants' understanding of psychological and physical causal relations, theory unification and graphical models in human categorization, and two proposals for causal grammars. Annotation c2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Alison Gopnik is Professor of Psychology at the University of California at Berkeley. She is the coauthor of Words, Thoughts and Theories (1997), and The Scientist mn the Crib (1999). She has written over a hundred scientific articles as well as articles for The New York Times, The New York Review of Books and Slate.com.

Laura Schulz is Assistant Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the Massachussets Institute of Technology. She has been the recipient of National Science Foundation and American Association of University Women fellowships. She has published in Developmental Psychology, Child Development, Psychological Review and Trends in Cognitive Sciences.