Causal Knowledge In The Characteristic Properties Of Causal Position Effect And The Influence Of Feature Weight Studies

Causal links between features can account for lots of variables of feature centrality in natural kinds. It is an important kind of relationship in conceptual representation. The causal status effect as one of dominant psychology effects plays an important role in causal knowledge. The studies which concern it can help us learn the human cognitive process well, and it maybe useful for the construction of more powerful theory. In addition, this study provides an approach of affecting the feature centrality-to manipulate the property of the feature. It is helpful for improving the previous studies on classification being lack of systematic manipulating methods about the feature centrality.The causal status effect refers to as the earlier a feature appears in the causal network, the greater it impacts on the individuals’judgment on classification, in case of balancing other factors. In the current study, we used man-made materials containing category with four features which were causally related with each other. Subjects were asked to judge the probability of classifying a sample to the given category. We explored the variability of feature weights in the four features or as a whole, and we also studied whether the causal status effect existed or not when an initial reason feature was internal or external.The results showed that:there was a complete causal status effect in adults when they classified the category with a chain causal links among four features, no matter whether the initial reason feature was internal or external. The causal status effect was greater if the initial reason feature was internal, compare with the external one. In other words, the inherence of the initial reason feature enhanced the causal status effect. Compare with the external one, the feature weights as a whole were also significantly greater when the initial reason feature was internal.