Comparison Helps Children Form Broad Explanations

Research has shown that generating explanations can benefit learning in both children and adults. In part this is because people prefer explanations that characterize phenomena in terms of broad regularities. Here we propose that comparison is integral to the process of generating broad, satisfactory explanations. Specifically, (1) generating explanations often invokes comparison, (2) the resulting structural alignment process reveals commonalities that feed into a broad explanation. In Experiment 1a, we adapted a study on explanation-generation by Walker et al. (2017). 5- and 6-year-old children were asked to explain a set of outcomes that could result either from a single broad cause or from two or more specific causes. When children had the opportunity to compare the outcomes, they arrived at the broad explanation, replicating Walker et al. When comparison was made difficult, children preferred specific explanations. The results suggest that comparison is integral to the power of self-explanation. In Experiment 1b, we found that comparison by itself was not sufficient to lead children to broad explanations—suggesting that both explanation and comparison are critical in allowing children to attend to the broad pattern.