Causality:  referred to as the way that objects behave and interact

                       (cause and effect).

        Cohen & Amsel conducted a study in 1997 that examined 6 and 10 month old infants to determine whether infants could respond to visible events on the basis of causality.  The purpose of this study was to examine infants' perception and understanding of causation.  Cohen & Amsel believe that infants possess innate causal predispositions to view the world in terms of cause and effect.

Habituation paradigm:  Three conditions of toy vehicle:

·        direct launching,

·        delayed launching,

·        or no-collision

Experiment:

•  Infants were shown causal chain events involving two toy vehicles and a jack-in-the-box shaped dog house.
•  In direct launching events, one toy moves across the screen and stops upon contact with a second stationary toy in the center of the screen.
•  The second toy begins to move and stops when contact is made with the doghouse.
• At the time of impact with the second toy, a puppy pops out of the doghouse.