Hmm, line of text at the bottom is not visible - Shirley Liu's poster on causal reasoning about defaults is at Sat 1:00-2:15, P3-L-115!

thanks!! and yes... I'm very happy to have this paper out in its final form, after talking about these ideas at several conferences over the years!

Check out our paper for more -- it’s open access: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

and on OSF, too! osf.io/preprints/os...

Overall - we think these findings are exciting, as they provide a new mechanism by which music is linked to social cognition,

show that people rationally infer social causes (“hidden agents”) for sounds they hear,

and raise questions about developmental change in children's reasoning about sound!

Again, younger children failed: 4 year old children did not systematically pick any answer. Altogether, our data shows developmental change. 4 year old children may fail to integrate auditory & visual information in causal reasoning, and develop this ability by age 6 years.

If people are using Bayesian causal reasoning, then their reasoning should be flexible, allowing for other inferences too.

In a second experiment, we found evidence of this: 6yo children and adults also used musical sounds' timing to infer the structure of the visual environment.

By 6 years, kids' causal reasoning about music was adult-like: They integrated auditory and visual information to judge when a hidden agent was present.

Younger kids differed: 4yo's judged that an agent was present when they heard orderly sounds, and ignored relevant visual information entirely.

We find: Adults and 6yo children rationally infer the cause of musical sounds they hear. Exp1: They inferred the presence of a “hidden agent” from musical sounds’ timing. (When the timing required self-propelled movement to produce, they inferred the presence of a hidden agent, causing the sounds.)

We explore the development of this reasoning, motivated by findings that children below 6 years have failed to rationally integrate auditory-visual information in causal reasoning, in other tasks.

From early in life, and across cultures, music listening is linked with movement and the social world. Why?

We test a new hypothesis. People may engage in causal reasoning about how musical sounds were generated, which intuitively links musical sounds with the agents and events that caused them.

Congratulations!!!

(With co-authors extraordinaire @asmithflores.bsky.social, Madison Pesowski (poster 90) and Minju Kim (Poster 52)!

Many of our faculty panelists are looking to accept students this cycle (@brialong.bsky.social @adenaschachner.bsky.social @nadiabrashier.bsky.social to name a few), so it’s a chance to hear from them before you apply!

Come spend two days learning about our program! We can’t wait to meet you! 3/4

Congratulations!!

...and my wonderful students and trainees who make everything we do possible, and make doing science so much more meaningful and fun. @rtompkins.bsky.social @asmithflores.bsky.social @chaolanlin.bsky.social (+Minju Kim, Tanushree Agrawal, Madison Pesowski!)

I'm looking forward to this new decade!

I am feeling so fortunate, and so grateful. Thank you to all of my family (particularly @timbrady.bsky.social, and my parents); my colleagues and mentors who have supported me (and contributed letters to the tenure process)...

Yesterday, on my birthday, I got the call from our department chair that I have officially received tenure, and an additional acceleration/ promotion as well (which I had not at all anticipated). The best timing — and the best 40th birthday present ever!

Forgot the main hashtag #CDS2024 😅