Three experiments investigated rules for judging causal priority—the determination of which of two coincident events caused the other. Results indicated that children utilized a direction of generative transmission rule from 3–4 years and rules based on temporal priority of cause and human intervention with respect to the cause from 7–8 years. Attributions of causal priority were justified primarily on the basis of generative transmission, even when no such information was perceptually available. These experiments strengthen earlier conclusions regarding the centrality of the notion of generative transmission in the child's causal reas