学前儿童对时距的估计及其策略

该研究旨在探查学前儿童对时距的认识过程及其认识策略。使用2秒、4秒、6秒、8秒四种不同的时间间隔作为刺激物,在每次呈现之后要求儿童按键再现时距。5岁和6岁的学前儿童参加这一实验。主要结果表明:5、6岁儿童已能区分只有几秒钟差异的单一时距;在无声音参照条件下,他们对4秒钟的估计较为准确,而在有声音参照条件下,5岁儿童则对6秒钟的估计更趋准确。研究材料还证实了,儿童从5岁起初步能够使用时间标尺,开始把时间看成是可以计数的维量。

TIME DURATION ESTIMATED BY PRESCHOOLERS AND THEIR STRATEGIES

The purpose of the study was to explore how preschoolers estimated timeduration and their (if any) strategies. A panda figure was shown on thecomputer screen with different time intervals of 2, 4, 6, and 8 seconds res-pectively in random order. The subject was asked to reproduce the same timeintervals corresponded with the presentation of the panda by pressing a keyevery time. The preschoolers with the age of 5 and 6 were investigated bybeing assigned to three experimatal conditions. The results indicated that thepreschoolers could distinguish the variations of simple time duration withinseveral seconds from one another; The duration with 4 seconds were estimatedmore aaccurately than the others under the condition of no reference of theclicked sound; The duration with 6 seconds were estimated by the 5-yr-oldsaccurately under the condition of the reference of the clicked sound; The find-ing also convinced that the time references could be approached by the chil-dren as early as 5 years of age who would potentially regard the time as aquantitative dimension by being counted.