Infants' processing of causal and noncausal events at 3.5 months of age

Infants' processing of causal (direct launching) and noncausal (delayed rea ction, launching without collision) events was investigated with 30 infants who were 3.5 months old. The habituation-dishabituation technique was used . Results showed that the infants did not process direct launching as causa l. However, their pattern of responding revealed a tendency to key on the s patial and temporal properties of the events. Those findings are discussed in terms of their compatibility with a modular, an information-processing, and a Piagetian framework.