幼儿同伴关系与情绪理解能力关系的研究

以天津某幼儿园大班58名幼儿为被试,采用四种情绪理解任务测查幼儿的情绪理解能力,并采用同伴提名法测查幼儿的被接纳和被关注程度.通过对五种同伴关系类型的幼儿在四种情绪理解任务上的差异研究,考察同伴关系与情绪理解的关系.结果表明:受欢迎型幼儿在四种情绪理解任务上的表现显著高于被拒绝、被忽视和矛盾型幼儿;幼儿受同伴接纳程度与其情绪理解能力呈显著正相关,而与被同伴关注程度相关不显著;同伴接纳程度对幼儿的情绪理解能力具有预测作用.     

儿童对他人情绪与过去经验的关系的认知

用设置故事情景的方法对儿童对他人情绪与过去经验的关系的认知进行了实验研究。研究表明,4～7岁儿童能够认知他人情绪与过去经验的关系,认知能力随年龄的增长不断提高。情绪效价和情绪情景的匹配性影响儿童对他人情绪与过去经验关系的认知。4、5岁儿童更能认识到正性情绪情景条件下体验到负性情绪的他人情绪与过去经验的关系,其得分显著高于其它情绪情景故事和行为故事。     

小学儿童混合情绪理解的发展研究*

旨在探究小学阶段儿童的混合情绪理解发展状况。以能够引发儿童混合情绪的经典故事情景为材料,对小学1-6年级242名儿童采用半结构式访谈法和测验法进行实验,结果表明:小学儿童混合情绪理解水平存在显著的年龄效应,呈现出随年龄增大混合情绪理解水平逐渐提高的发展趋势。对他人和对自身混合情绪理解差异显著,对他人混合情绪的理解是对自身混合理解的基础,同性质和不同性质(冲突)混合情绪的理解能力存在显著差异。不同性质(冲突)混合情绪的理解能力发展较晚。因此,混合情绪理解能力在小学阶段快速发展,呈现出年龄、理解的对象、情绪的性质三个方面的显著差异。     

材料情绪性对条件推理影响的眼动研究

以大学生为被试,采用不同情绪效价的条件命题作为实验材料,运用眼动仪器记录被试进行条件推理的过程和结果,探讨了材料情绪性对条件推理的影响状况.实验采用3(材料情绪性:正性情绪、负性情绪、中性情绪)×4(推理形式:MP、DA、AC、MT)的重复测量实验设计.研究结果发现,正性和负性情绪材料的条件推理成绩显著地低于中性情绪材料,结果支持抑制假说.     

7～11岁儿童的同伴接纳与心理理论发展的研究

本研究采用情境故事研究7～11岁儿童二级错误信念理解和特质理解能力的发展,并探讨该年龄段儿童同伴接纳与心理理论发展的相互影响机制。结果表明,7～11岁儿童的二级错误信念理解能力随年龄增长显著提高;7岁儿童关于特质因果性的理解有比较高的起点,7～9岁加速发展,之后趋缓;7～9岁儿童的同伴接纳与其二级误信念理解能力没有显著的相关;总体上看,受欢迎学生的特质理解能力显著优于被拒斥学生。     

道德和个人领域儿童情绪理解的发展特点及对其亲社会行为的影响

本研究探讨了173名4~10岁儿童在道德领域和个人领域情绪理解的发展变化特点,以及儿童情绪理解能力的发展与其亲社会行为的关系。结果表明:(1)在主要情绪预测中,随着年龄的增长,儿童越来越多的预测违反规则感到高兴。从8岁开始,儿童预测违反道德领域的规则比违反个人领域的规则会更不高兴。(2)在次要情绪预测中,在道德领域,随着年龄的增长,越来越多的儿童预测"违反感觉不高兴"。在个人领域,预测"违反感觉不高兴"的人数在10岁组出现下降。(3)8~10岁组儿童道德领域的情绪理解能显著预测其亲社会行为,儿童预测违反道德规则时的情绪预测越积极,其教师评定的亲社会行为水平越低。这些结果表明随着年龄的增长,儿童展现出越来越丰富、复杂的情绪理解能力,并且儿童道德领域的情绪理解能力能显著预测儿童日常生活中的亲社会行为。     

纳西族和汉族儿童情绪理解能力的发展

选取3～5岁的纳西族儿童107人,3～5岁的汉族儿童90人,使用情绪理解任务系统地考察了他们情绪理解的发展,同时还测量了两个民族儿童的错误信念理解和语言能力。结果表明,两个民族儿童情绪理解能力具有相似的发展规律,但完成各任务的成绩有显著差异,提示了两个民族儿童情绪理解能力发展的不同步性。研究还发现,心理理论社会知觉成分与认知成分随年龄的增长相互促进和相互制约,并且都与语言能力有关。     

儿童行为与心理水平的特质推理的发展

选取4岁组、5岁组、7岁组、10岁组、12岁组儿童和成人共192名(各年龄组32名, 男女各半)为被试, 采用个别测查法考察学前和小学儿童行为与心理水平的特质推理发展。结果表明: (1)4岁时儿童已能进行行为水平的特质推理, 5岁时才能进行心理水平的特质推理, 即使用特质引发规则进行特质推理, 10岁时两者均达到成人水平。(2)4岁、5岁时儿童心理水平的特质推理显著落后于行为水平的特质推理, 至少7岁时两者处于同一水平上。(3)儿童使用概念相似规则而不是情境匹配规则进行行为预测。(4)4岁儿童不使用简单效价规则进行行为预测, 5岁及以上儿童使用简单效价规则, 但他们是在区分同一特质范畴和不同特质范畴的基础上、在较低的确定程度上使用该规则。     

情绪作为事件性前瞻记忆的附加线索:相反效价增强效应

使用前瞻记忆双任务实验范式,同时操纵当前任务与前瞻任务包含的情绪效价以及前瞻记忆的前瞻成分和回溯成分的情绪效价,考察双任务和两成分效价一致或相反条件对事件性前瞻记忆加工的影响。结果发现,与情绪效价一致时相比,双任务的效价相反时前瞻记忆更能正确执行,两成分情绪效价相反时前瞻成分完成更好。这种相反效价增强前瞻记忆的效应表明情绪作为附加线索影响了事件性前瞻记忆加工过程。     

基于愿望的儿童特质因果理解研究

本研究采用测验法,随机抽取60名42-93个月的儿童为被试,考察他们基于愿望的特质因果理解能力。结果显示:(1)从42个月起,儿童就可以根据特质信息进行行为预测和情绪预测,且随年龄增长,预测水平有显著提高;(2)儿童理解愿望的主观性是儿童进行情绪预测的前提。     

Analogical reasoning in 2-year-olds: The development of access and relational inference

Eighty-four 24- and 30-month-old children were tested with two analogy tasks: formal and problem solving. Experiment 1 included three Groups: relations specified, relations unspecified, and associative control (no exposure to base relations). In Experiment 2 the relation that linked that a- and b-terms in formal problems was explicitly shown in order to reduce relational inference demands. In Experiment 1, children responded systematically to the formal problems when given two chances to answer each question. In Experiment 2, children were systematic on their first responses. In the problem-solving task the rates of spontaneous analogies produced were similar to those seen in older children. However, unlike older children, 2-year-olds benefited minimally from prompts. We believe this may indicate that 2-year-olds have difficulty explicitly controlling their analogical activity. We conclude early analogical abilities may be limited by weak relational inference abilities and difficulty intentionally initiating access.     

面孔吸引力和信息正确性对幼儿选择性信任的影响

实验1采用3×2×2 的混合设计, 考察4~6岁幼儿获取全新信息时基于面孔吸引力的选择性信任及其特点。结果显示：(1) 4~6岁的男孩和女孩均表现出对高面孔吸引力者的选择性信任。(2)在选择性信任程度方面：5岁比4岁高, 而4岁和6岁之间、5岁和6岁之间则相同; 女孩在询问任务中比男孩表现出更高的选择性信任, 在赞同任务中则相同。那么, 幼儿的这种选择性信任是否受到信息正确性的调节?为此, 实验2采用2×3的被试间设计, 探讨信息提供者提供信息的正确性对4~6岁幼儿基于面孔吸引力的选择性信任的影响。结果显示：在正确性为50% vs. 50%条件下, 幼儿未对信息提供者产生选择性信任; 在正确性为25% vs. 75%条件下, 幼儿对提供较大正确性信息的低面孔吸引力者产生了选择性信任。研究结果表明：(1)在信息缺乏时, 4~6岁幼儿普遍存在有偏见的选择性信任; 女孩比男孩更易受到社会偏见因素的影响。(2)在信息明确时, 4~6岁幼儿也能做出相对理性的选择性信任。     

权力感对炫耀性亲社会行为的影响

基于高成本价值信号理论, 本文探究了权力感对炫耀性亲社会行为的影响。5个实验的结果表明：权力感促使个体更愿意从事炫耀性亲社会行为, 高(vs. 低)权力感个体更倾向购买炫耀性亲社会产品, 更愿意进行炫耀性捐赠且捐赠金额较高, 也更愿意参与炫耀性善行, 其机制在于高权力感者具有较高的自我矫饰动机。本文对理解权力感对个体行为的影响、丰富权力感与亲社会行为的研究文献有理论贡献, 对有效引导高权力感者从事亲社会行为具有实践价值。     

Person Perception in Young Children Across Two Cultures

To adult humans, the task of forming an impression of another social being seems effortless and even obligatory. In 2 experiments, we offer the first systematic cross-cultural examination of impression formation in European American and East Asian preschool children. Children across both cultures easily inferred basic personality traits, such as nice and mean, about unfamiliar peers from behavioral information, whether or not they were specifically prompted to do so. Children were able to identify peers they had seen before, to remember the traits associated with these peers, and to anticipate future behaviors consistent with the traits they had attributed. Thus, for basic traits, the ability to make behavior-to-behavior predictions, via an intervening trait inference, is present in young children across diverse cultures.     

Young children's use of syntactic cues to learn proper names and count nouns

In 6 experiments, 144 toddlers were tested in groups ranging in mean age from 20 to 37 months. In all experiments, children learned a novel label for a doll or a stuffed animal. The label was modeled syntactically as either a count noun (e.g., "This is a ZAV") or a proper name (e.g., "This is ZAV"). The object was then moved to a new location in front of the child, and a second identical-looking object was placed nearby. The children's task was to choose 1 of the 2 objects as a referent for the novel word. By 24 months, both girls (Experiment 2) and boys (Experiment 5) were significantly more likely to select the labeled object if they heard a proper name than if they heard a count noun. At 20 months, neither girls (Experiments 1 and 6) nor boys (Experiment 1) demonstrated this effect. By their 2nd birthdays, children can use syntactic information to distinguish appropriately between labels for individual objects and those for object categories.     

Bottom-up and top-down dynamics in young children's executive function: Labels aid 3-year-olds’ performance on the Dimensional Change Card Sort

Executive function (EF) improves between the ages of 3 and 5 and has been assessed reliably using the Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS), a task in which children first sort bivalent cards by one dimension (e.g., shape) and then are instructed to sort by a different dimension (e.g., color). Three-year-olds typically perseverate on the pre-switch dimension, whereas 5-year-olds switch flexibly. Labeling task stimuli can facilitate EF performance (0110 and 0060), but the nature of this effect is unclear. In 3 experiments we examined 2 hypotheses deriving from different theoretical perspectives: first, that labels facilitate performance in a more bottom-up fashion, by biasing attention to relevant task rules (Kirkham et al., 2003); and second, that labels aid performance in a more top-down fashion by prompting reflection and an understanding of the hierarchical nature of the task (Zelazo, 2004). Children performed better on the DCCS when labels referred to the relevant sorting dimension (Experiment 1). This was a function of the content of the labels rather than the change in auditory signal across phases (Experiment 2). Furthermore, labeling the opposite dimension only did not have a symmetrically negative effect on performance (Experiment 3). Together, these results suggest external, verbal labels bias children to attend to task-relevant information, likely through interaction with emerging top-down, endogenous control.     

Preschoolers' extension of familiar adjectives

In two experiments, we examined the role of labels in guiding preschoolers' extension of three types of familiar adjectives: emotional state adjectives, physiological state adjectives, and trait adjectives. On each trial, we labeled a target animal with one of the three different types of adjectives and asked whether these terms could apply to a subordinate-level match, a basic-level match, a superordinate-level match, or an inanimate object. In Experiment 1, participants extended trait adjectives, but not emotional or physiological adjectives, to members of the same basic-level category, regardless of whether an explicit basic-level label was provided for the target animal. Similarly, children in Experiment 2 also extended trait adjectives to the members of the same basic-level category, even when explicit superordinate- and subordinate-level labels were provided for the target animals. Together, these results demonstrate that children appreciate that emotional and physiological adjectives cannot be generalized to the same extent as can trait adjectives, and the results document the privileged status of basic-level categories in preschoolers' extension of trait adjectives.     

The spatial representation of power in children

Previous evidence demonstrates that power is mentally represented as vertical space by adults. However, little is known about how power is mentally represented in children. The current research examines such representations. The influence of vertical information (motor cues) was tested in both an explicit power evaluation task (judge whether labels refer to powerless or powerful groups) and an incidental task (judge whether labels refer to people or animals). The results showed that when power was explicitly evaluated, vertical motor responses interfered with responding in children and adults, i.e., they responded to words representing powerful groups faster with the up than the down cursor key (and vice versa for powerless groups). However, this interference effect disappeared in the incidental task in children. The findings suggest that children have developed a spatial representation of power before they have been taught power–space associations formally, but that they do not judge power spontaneously.     

The interference effect of emotional expressions on facial identity recognition in preschool-aged children

The present study aims to explore the influence of facial emotional expressions on pre-scholars' identity recognition was analyzed using a two-alternative forced-choice matching task. A decrement was observed in children's performance with emotional faces compared with neutral faces, both when a happy emotional expression remained unchanged between the target face and the test faces and when the expression changed from happy to neutral or from neutral to happy between the target and the test faces (Experiment 1). Negative emotional expressions (i.e. fear and anger) also interfered with children's identity recognition (Experiment 2). Obtained evidence suggests that in preschool-age children, facial emotional expressions are processed in interaction with, rather than independently from, the encoding of facial identity information. The results are discussed in relationship with relevant research conducted with adults and children.     

The efficiency of binding spontaneous trait inferences to actors’ faces

Three experiments tested the hypothesis that the process of binding spontaneous trait inferences (STIs) to actors’ representations is relatively independent of attentional resources. Participants were presented with faces paired with single behaviors. Binding of STIs to actors was revealed by a higher false recognition of implied traits paired with actors’ faces than of implied traits randomly paired with other familiar faces. This effect replicated when each face-behavior pair was presented for 2 s (Experiment 1), when the processing of the information was shallow (Experiment 2), and when participants performed a secondary task during the presentation of behaviors (Experiment 3). Experiment 4 showed that explicit on-line trait judgments of the actor, but not explicit behavior judgments, predicted the false recognition of implied traits in the context of the actor. The possibility that the process of binding STIs to actors’ representations is automatic is discussed.