Developmental Differences in the Perception of Causality

Abstract

Michotte made use of the fact that two colored bands, one black and one red, painted in the form of spirals on a revolving disk and observed in cross-section through a fixed horizontal slit, are seen as two rectangles moving horizontally. Such a disk is illustrated in Fig. 1. The solid band represents a black object (A) and the shaded band represents a red object (B). The dotted lines indicate the area of the horizontal slit behind which the disk revolves counter-clockwise; O sees the colored bands only as they pass behind this slit. Initially, B is perceived at the center of the slit and, A toward the left. As the section of band A which spirals inward passes behind the slit, O sees A move toward B and come in contact with it. At that point, since Band A has ceased to spiral in, O sees A stop. Almost immediately, the section of Band B which spirals inward passes behind the slit, and O sees B move towards the right and disappear behind a white cardboard, while A remains at the center. Then A vanishes at the center. The entire process occurs in a single revolution of the disk and hence repeats itself a large number of times. By varying the ratio of speeds of A and B, Michotte was able to evoke a continuum of experiences from a strong causal effect of one object pushing or hitting the other (lancement) to an experience of separate and unrelated movements of the two objects. Between the clearly causal and the clearly non-causal phenomena, Michotte found an intermediate experience in which one object, by touching the other, triggers or releases it (declenchement). This experience contains none of the feeling of transfer of energy from one object to the other, so characteristic of the strong causal effect. It is intermediate in the sense that the second object is dependent on the first as initiator, although, once started, its movement becomes autonomous.