1. Models of causal reasoning

In the chapter, we discussed how to reason about causation using generative models. There is a separate question as to how humans actually do reason about causality, and what they mean when they say A caused B. Read out “How, whether, and why” by Tobi Gerstenberg, Noah Goodman, David Lagnado, & Joshua Tenenbaum. (You may find it useful to play around with this causality sandbox.

Reading questions:

a) According to Gerstenberg and colleagues, how do human notions of causality match the notion of causal dependence discussed in the chapter? How do they differ?

b) Gerstenberg and colleagues rely on a notion of counter-factual simulation. In what ways is this similar to embodiment or other classic simulation-based theories?

Extras