2020 journal article
Can autonomy play a role in causal reasoning?
Cognitive Development, 54, 100849.
UN Sustainable Development Goal Categories
4. Quality Education
(OpenAlex)
Source: Crossref
Added: January 8, 2024
Autonomy is associated with a variety of cognitive, educational, and motivational benefits, but relations between autonomy and reasoning skills are less well understood. We posit individuals afforded greater autonomy are more often put into situations of having to consider multiple options, or causes, and hence will likely reason about cause and effect differently. In a multi-level study, (n = 696) we examine associations between younger (11–13 years) and older (14–19 years) adolescents’ autonomy and their performance on a multivariable causal reasoning and prediction task. Across the sample, greater autonomy was associated with more effective reasoning, with some differences between young and older adolescents. Autonomy given predicted reasoning skills in younger adolescents, whereas more autonomy desired predicted reasoning skills in older adolescents. We highlight sociocultural, individual, and developmental factors in their differing relations to autonomy and its effects on causal reasoning.