汉语高功能自闭症儿童代词加工:利用提及顺序和重读线索的表现

采用句子理解任务分别探究了5~7岁的汉语高功能自闭症儿童在单独提及顺序线索,提及顺序线索和重读线索共现两种条件下代词加工的表现。研究结果表明,汉语高功能自闭症儿童不像智商和工作记忆广度匹配的同龄典型发展儿童一样能够单独利用提及顺序线索加工代词,即倾向于选择首先提及的实体作为代词的指称对象,而表现为随机选择代词所指。当提及顺序线索和重读线索共现时,典型发展儿童在两条线索一致和冲突时都倾向于依靠重读线索加工代词,而汉语高功能自闭症儿童对两条线索都不敏感,表现为随机选择代词所指。这表明5~7岁的汉语高功能儿童不能够利用这两条线索加工代词,在利用语篇突显性线索加工代词方面存在困难。     

2～4岁儿童对"大""小"空间形容词词义掌握的研究

本研究以2～4儿童为研究对象。在自然实验条件下,通过精心设计的四项实验,得出结论：2岁儿童还未了解大小词义;2．5岁儿童能判别当前两同类物体的大小;3岁儿童能对两同类物体的大小相对性比较;4岁儿童能掌握不同类物体间大小的搭配;4岁儿童9成能掌握人与物间相对大小的匹配,但仅一半儿童掌握三个同类物体同时比较时大小相对关系,即4岁儿童还未对“大”“小”词义完全掌握。实验表明儿童掌握“大”“小”空间形容词是由易到难,由浅到深,由绝对禁止到相对灵活,由以自我为中心到以外界为中心。     

幼儿对人称代词的理解

本研究调查了二岁半至五岁半的儿童理解人称代词‘我’,‘你’,‘他’的指称意义的发展情况。要求被试在不同语言情境下辨别说话者所讲的‘我’,‘你’,‘他’所指的是谁。共有两项实验。实验Ⅰ,被试作为其他三人交谈时的旁观者;实验Ⅱ,被试本人参加三人交谈,并分别担任受话者和第三者的角色。结果表明:(1)二岁半到四岁半的幼儿对人称代词指称意义的理解水平随年龄增长而提高,四岁半和五岁半之间无显著差异;(2)幼儿对三个人称代词的理解水平是‘我’最高,‘你’次之,‘他’最低;(3)幼儿在理解人称代词的指称意义时,还不能灵活地随着语言环境的变化而转换参照点。     

3．5～5．5岁学前儿童年龄认知发展的研究

该实验采用三个问题作业(“年龄比较”、“出生年龄”、“年龄变化”)及一个“图示作业”,调查了60名3．5～5．5岁儿童年龄认知的发生、发展情况,结果表明：3．5岁儿童处于年龄认知萌芽状态,4．5岁儿童年龄认知开始发生,5．5岁儿童的年龄认知已发展到较高水平。儿童年龄认知变化可用变化分割模型(简称CS模型)来解释。     

3～6岁儿童“心理理论”的发展

“心理理论”是发展心理学的研究热点,在儿童获得心理理论的年龄和发展阶段问题上仍存在争议。该研究以3所城市幼儿园中的233名3-6岁儿童为被试,采用“意外转移”和“欺骗外表”两个错误信念测验任务考察儿童“心理理论”的获得年龄和发展阶段。研究得出如下结论:3岁之前儿童已理解外表与真实的区别,但还不能理解错误信念。 4岁儿童理解了欺骗外表任务中自己和他人的错误信念,5岁儿童理解了意外转移任务中的错误信念。4-5岁是儿童获得“心理理论”的关键年龄,但这会因测验任务的不同而有所差异。儿童的错误信念理解不存在显著的性别差异。     

动词隐含因果语义对汉语高功能自闭症儿童代词加工的影响

个体在利用动词隐含因果语义线索确定代词所指的过程中会结合动词语义特征和语境信息两个方面,已有研究指出自闭症儿童在语言加工过程中无法有效利用语境信息,本研究采用句子理解任务,考察有无语境支持和不同动词类型（主语隐含型和宾语隐含型）四种条件下,汉语高功能自闭症儿童利用动词隐含因果语义信息加工代词的能力。结果显示,（1）汉语高功能自闭症儿童的代词加工表现显著差于典型发展儿童;（2）语境信息可以帮助被试确定代词所指,且对两组被试成绩的提高程度相当。以上结果表明汉语高功能自闭症儿童之所以无法利用动词的隐含因果语义线索确定代词所指的原因可能是他们对该类动词的语义表征存在问题,而非无法利用语境信息。     

动词隐含因果语义对汉语高功能自闭症儿童代词加工的影响

个体在利用动词隐含因果语义线索确定代词所指的过程中会结合动词语义特征和语境信息两个方面,已有研究指出自闭症儿童在语言加工过程中无法有效利用语境信息,本研究采用句子理解任务,考察有无语境支持和不同动词类型（主语隐含型和宾语隐含型）四种条件下,汉语高功能自闭症儿童利用动词隐含因果语义信息加工代词的能力。结果显示,（1）汉语高功能自闭症儿童的代词加工表现显著差于典型发展儿童;（2）语境信息可以帮助被试确定代词所指,且对两组被试成绩的提高程度相当。以上结果表明汉语高功能自闭症儿童之所以无法利用动词的隐含因果语义线索确定代词所指的原因可能是他们对该类动词的语义表征存在问题,而非无法利用语境信息。     

四岁儿童的自我参照效应研究

本研究通过两个实验探讨4岁儿童的自我参照效应。实验1与实验2分别采用3(4岁、5岁与7岁儿童)×2(自我参照与他人参照)与2(3岁与4岁儿童)×2(自我参照与他人参照)的混合设计。120名被试对物品进行所有权(ownership)识别并报告"这是我的××"或"这是李明的××",然后将图片放入相应的纸盒并再次报告,两分钟后进行自由回忆。结果显示:(1)自我参照条件下4岁组、5岁组与7岁组儿童自由回忆率有显著差异,他人参照条件下没有差异;(2)自我参照条件下4岁组儿童的自由回忆率显著高于3岁组,他人参照条件下没有差异。这说明,4岁儿童已经具有自我参照效应,同时,随着年龄的增长,自我参照条件下的自由回忆率呈现递增趋势,表明儿童自我参照效应的发展性特点。     

3～5岁幼儿执行功能的发展

该研究在两种理论背景下,探讨了3~5 岁幼儿执行功能年龄发展特征。通过运用8种不同的执行功能任务,结果发现,从3 岁到4 岁是幼儿执行功能发展的重要时期;但执行功能的不同类型在发展的趋势上有所不同,表现为:抑制控制及“热”执行功能的发展主要在3~4 岁之间,而计划控制和“冷”执行功能在3~5岁期间都有显著的发展。     

学龄前儿童学习需要的发展

 本文采取了两种方法研究学前儿童学习需要的发展特点,其一是“魔术房”(magishouse),这是在N.I.Berline(1950)的对新奇事物的反应的研究方法的基础上修改设计的;其二是“童话故事”,在这个方法中,实验者提供1到4个童话供被试听,被试必须选择一个童话,教师对两组儿童即30名3—4岁儿童(年幼组)和30名4—7岁儿童(准备组)进行了调查.调查结果指出,年幼组和年长组(即准备组)之间在学习倾向上有新的变化:从对新刺激的被动反应到主动努力了解新事物.这是好奇心发展的一个方面.     

Possessive pronouns: Why are plurals harder?

Twenty-four children between the ages of 2 1/2 and 5 years were given paint boxes such that they either shared one box between two or owned one box each. They were then asked to point to the boxes as specified by possessive pronouns: either plural possessive pronouns or pairs of singular possessive pronouns. The use of plural possessive pronouns adversely affected performance in all groups, but the type of ownership of the paint boxes did not. The results also suggest that the third-person pronouns cause fewest problems for children while second-person pronouns cause most. The findings are discussed in terms of the order of acquisition of plural pronouns, and the reasons that plural pronouns should cause more problems than singular possessive pronouns.     

THE ACQUISITION OF PERSON PRONOUNS IN FRENCH-SPEAKING CHILDREN*

The study reports data on the acquisition of person pronouns by 29 French-speaking children, aged between 18 and 30 months. The results show that this acquisition proceeds according to a regular developmental sequence, which parallels that found in research with English-speaking children. However, it appeared that the French-speaking children in this study learned the pronouns about 2-3 months later than had been reported for English-speaking children. The results are interpreted as giving evidence about the selective contribution of general developmental mechanisms and socio-cultural and linguistic factors to young children's learning of person pronouns.     

Pronouns and progress: a psychoanalytic primer

Psychoanalytic psychotherapists have the role responsibility to hover evenly over everything that is said--and not said--in the analytic situation. Pronouns may be worthy of special attention. Just as children demonstrate a predictable course in the acquisition and mastery of pronouns, it may be that the analytic patient also shows a predictable sequence in the deployment of pronouns over the course of a successful treatment. The analytic patient will move from a focus on "They," to joining the analyst in "We," before ultimately separating to become an "I." A third person focus in the opening phase, may, with familiarity, move to second person intimacy, ultimately yielding to first person agency. These grammatical markers occur in the opening, middle and termination/follow-up phases of a successful psychoanalytic treatment, during which the pre-morbid introjects are identified, chewed up, and, eventually nudged aside by the healthier therapeutic-introject, from which a new or renewed identity may emerge. Analysis of the Grimm's fairy tale "The Wolf and the Kids" illustrations the importance of metabolizing old introjects.     

The Animal = Male Hypothesis: Children's and Adults' Beliefs About the Sex of Non–Sex-Specific Stuffed Animals

The Animal = Male Hypothesis, a variation of Silveira's People = Male Hypothesis (Silveira, 1980), was examined. In Study 1, children ages 3–10 years and adults told stories about a gender-neutral stuffed animal, in Study 2 children ages 5–6 years told stories about 3 neutral and 3 feminine animals, and in Study 3 children ages 5–7 years told stories about 2 neutral animals, observed an adult model use feminine pronouns to refer to an animal, then told stories about 2 more animals. Dependent variables were the pronouns participants used to refer to the animals and what sex they believed the animals were. Results showed strong evidence for an animal = male bias in all 3 studies among children and adults of both sexes on both dependent measures. There were few sex-related differences. The modeling intervention was not successful in reducing the bias.     

Subject-verb agreement errors in written productions: A study of French children and adults

This experiment was designed to simulate the conditions for subject-verb agreement errors, which are rarely but regularly observed in highly educated adults. Twenty-four adults and 24 children (12 years old) were orally presented with sentences to write. The sentences were in the French past indicative (the imperfect tense) and were of two types, asfollows: Noun 1 [subject of the verb]+Verb 1+Noun 2 [object of the verb] and(Adverbial phrase)+Pronoun 1+Pronoun 2+Verb 2+ (adverbial phrase). The adverbial phrase appeared either at the beginning or the end of the sentence. The conditions were the following: Noun 1 (and Pronoun 1) and Noun 2 (and Pronoun 2) were either matched or mismatched in number, and the sentences were either followed or not by a series of five words to be memorized. Most adults made errors when the two pronouns differed in number. But, in contrast to the results of studies using the present indicative, the extra cognitive load (the word series) did not lead to more errors. The children also made errors when the two pronouns differed, and did so whatever the cognitive load. The position of the adverbial phrase did not influence the error ratio. With the imperfect tense, it seems that making the verb number agree with its subject cannot be considered as a cognitively automatic and effortless activity, even for adults.     

Twelve‐Step Groups,Attributions of Blame for Personal Sadness,Psychological Well‐Being,and the Moderating Role of Gender1

Two studies investigated links among 12‐step group participation, gender, attributions of blame for personal sadness, and psychological well‐being. Study I used a correlational design to examine these links cross‐sectionally among substance abusers who identified alcohol as their primary drug problem. Study 2 used an experimental design to examine prospective links among these variables for substance abusers who were also adult children of alcoholics. Females engaged in more blame than did males, and personal blame was negatively related to psychological well‐being in Studies 1 and 2. Most significantly, 12‐step group participation was associated with lower personal blame among females but not among males across both studies. These results indicate that 12‐step groups can reduce personal blame among females who have substance abuse problems.     

Can we distinguish an “I” and “ME” during listening?—an event-related EEG study on the processing of first and second person personal and possessive pronouns

Theoretically, stimuli can be related to the self as subject (“I”) or object (“ME”) of experience. This event-related brain potential (ERP) study investigated whether listening to personal and possessive pronouns elicits different modes of self-processing regarding time-course and neural sources. Going beyond previous research, first (1PP) and second person (2PP) pronouns were included to determine the specificity of self-processing. Participants listened passively to German pronouns while the electroencephalogram was recorded. Modulation of ERPs revealed a processing advantage for the 2PP personal pronoun “du” (“you”) already in early time windows. Regarding possessive pronouns, N1 amplitudes indicated increased attention orientation to the 1PP pronoun “mein” (“my”), whereas during later time windows, processing of 1PP and 2PP possessive pronouns did not differ but differed from the third person pronoun “sein” (“his”). ERP source imaging suggests that primary sensory brain regions (auditory cortex), the insula and cortical midline structures are differentially involved into these two processing modes. The results support the idea of distinct self-processing modes (“I” and “ME”) and confirm their dynamic nature. Moreover, they demonstrate that on a neural level neither “I” or “ME” are invariantly tied to the first person, in line with the hypothesis that self-processing is relational and context-dependent.     

Use of pronouns: formal and functional aspects in the early phases of language development]

This article presents findings from empirical studies of the development of the use of pronouns in early child language. This presentation includes discussion of 1) when personal, reflexive, possessive, and indefinite pronominal forms appear in child-initiated contexts, 2) which errors emerge, and 3) which communicative functions utterances with pronouns have in dialogue. A first comparison of German-speaking and (American-)English-speaking children's usage is offered, focussing in particular on the use of the pronominal forms I/ich, you/du, and my/mein. This crosslinguistic comparison reveals differences in the age of first use, but simultaneously suggests similarities in functional characteristics of such usage. The findings are discussed in connection with the question of the development of children's communicative competence.     

Developmental changes in consistency of preferential feeling for peers and objects around age four

When do young children come to have an individual mental image of each peer? Forming a stable impression of each person requires maturation of at least two cognitive abilities, inferring the other's mind and episodic memory. According to past studies, the critical period for both these abilities is around age four. Thus, it was hypothesized that the child begins to form a consistent mental image of each peer at or after age four. To test this hypothesis, the temporal consistency of preference for peers was examined in 3-, 4-, and 5-yr.-olds. Each subject was asked "Who do you like better than others in this class?" once a week for three times (Study 1). The results indicated that most of the 3-yr.-olds answered different names as their favorite friends or nonsense things inconsistently week by week, whereas older children tended to answer the same names across weeks. However, changing the question to "Which object do you like best of these alternatives?" dramatically changed the response pattern (Study 2): preferences among nonhuman objects (playthings) were temporally consistent even for 3-yr.-olds. These results indicate that children before age four do have a temporally consistent feeling toward general objects but do not have a consistent firm feeling about personal relationships among peers. The results are discussed in relation to the critical developmental changes about age 4 in other cognitive abilities.     

Transitional knowledge in the acquisition of concepts

These studies explore children's conceptual knowledge as it is expressed through their verbal and gestural explanations of concepts. We build on previous work that has shown that children who produce a large proportion of gestures that do not match their verbal explanations are in transition with respect to the concept they are explaining. This gesture/speech mismatch has been called “discordance.” Previous work discovered this phenomenon with respect to 5- to 7-year-old children's explanations of conservation problems. Study 1 shows: (1) that older children (10 to 11 years old) exhibit gesture/speech discordance with respect to another concept, understanding the equivalence relationship in mathematical equations, and; (2) that children who produce many discordant responses in their explanations of mathematical equivalence are more likely to benefit from instruction in the concept than are children who produce few such responses. Studies 2 and 3 explore the properties and usefulness of discordance as an index of transitional knowledge in a child's acquisition of mathematical equivalence. Under any circumstance in which new concepts are acquired, there exists a mental bridge connecting the old knowledge state to the new. The studies reported here suggest that the combination of gesture and speech may be an easily observable and significantly interpretable reflection of knowledge states, both static and in flux.