While it is well documented that children with autism are impaired in their language development, research on their categorization has shown little to no impairment. However, such research has focused only on children's categorization using perceptual features of objects and not considered what role causality plays in conceptual development. This project seeks to examine conceptual and language development in both normal children and children with autism, focusing on their causal understanding of the world. Furthermore, conceptual development has usually been related to aspects of language development. It is possible that understanding categorization using causal features of objects is related linguistically to providing causal explanations about the world. Children between the ages of 24 months and 6 years will be given categorization tasks that use causal and perceptual cues. They will also be given narrative tasks, designed to elicit explanations about the world. Children with autism of certain ages will also be tested. In this way, we can discover if the linguistic and conceptual developments are linked and what role they might play in diagnosis and treatment.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Predoctoral Individual National Research Service Award (F31)
Project #
5F31MH012047-03
Application #
6185114
Study Section
Child Psychopathology and Treatment Review Committee (CPT)
Program Officer
Altman, Fred
Project Start
2000-06-01
Project End
Budget Start
2000-06-07
Budget End
2001-05-31
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
2000
Total Cost
$21,405
Indirect Cost
Name
University of California Berkeley
Department
Other Health Professions
Type
Other Domestic Higher Education
DUNS #
094878337
City
Berkeley
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
94704
Griffiths, Thomas L; Sobel, David M; Tenenbaum, Joshua B et al. (2011) Bayes and blickets: effects of knowledge on causal induction in children and adults. Cogn Sci 35:1407-55
Gopnik, Alison; Glymour, Clark; Sobel, David M et al. (2004) A theory of causal learning in children: causal maps and Bayes nets. Psychol Rev 111:3-32