Verbal and nonverbal forms of thinking exhibit widespread dissociation at neural and behavioral level. The importance of this for children's causal thinking and its implications for school science are largely unknown. Assessing 5‐ to 10‐year‐olds' responses (N = 231), verbal ability predicted causal reasoning, but only at lower levels, while nonverbal ability was the strongest predictor at higher levels of causal inference. We also distinguished between generic and scientific vocabulary use (n = 101). The results showed that use of scientific vocabulary predicted causal reasoning beyond generic, and connected more to nonverbal thinking. The findings highlighted the importance of elementary school science activities supporting application of nonverbal ability in thinking about causal processes; the benefits of linking nonverbal imagery to scientific vocabulary; and shortcomings in understanding of the forms/sources of nonverbal ability and their role in learning.

中文翻译：

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非语言能力和科学词汇比通用语言更能预测儿童的科学因果推理

语言和非语言形式的思维在神经和行为层面表现出广泛的分离。这对儿童因果思维的重要性及其对学校科学的影响在很大程度上是未知的。评估 5 至 10 岁儿童的反应（N = 231），语言能力预测因果推理，但仅在较低水平，而非语言能力是较高水平因果推理的最强预测因子。我们还区分了通用词汇和科学词汇的使用（n = 101）。结果表明，科学词汇的使用预测了超越一般的因果推理，并且更多地与非语言思维联系起来。研究结果强调了支持非语言能力在思考因果过程中的应用的小学科学活动的重要性；将非语言图像与科学词汇联系起来的好处；在理解非语言能力的形式/来源及其在学习中的作用方面存在缺陷。