学前儿童心理理论及欺骗发展的关系研究

本文采用两种标准心理理论任务和两种欺骗任务,以3~6岁儿童为被试,探讨了学前儿童心理理论与欺骗发展的关系,得出如下结论:(1)在不同的误信念任务中,学前儿童的表现不一致;但仍存在一般发展趋势:3岁儿童不能通过误信念任务,4、5岁是儿童误信念发展的关键时期.(2)3岁儿童不能拥有隐藏意图的欺骗能力,4岁儿童拥有隐藏意图的欺骗能力.(3)3岁儿童能说谎,但假装无知的欺骗直到6岁才出现.(4)误信念理解与隐藏意图的欺骗存在相关,但与说谎和假装无知不存在相关.     

4、5岁儿童一般语言能力和心理理论关系的纵向研究

为探明汉语儿童语言和心理理论的发展, 追踪二者的动态关系及相互作用的方向, 本研究以80名4、5岁儿童为研究对象, 纵向探查了前后相隔6个月的儿童的一般语言能力和心理理论的发展状况, 并运用交叉-滞后组相关分析初步探查了二者是否存在因果关系及可能的作用方向。结果表明：4~5岁是汉语儿童心理理论发展的重要时期, 语言在这一阶段也得到快速发展。交叉-滞后组相关分析发现了4岁儿童语言和心理理论因果关系的证据, 但随着年龄的增长, 语言对心理理论的前提基础作用有所减弱, 5岁儿童没有表现出这种因果关系。     

亲子间心理状态术语、非心理状态术语使用与儿童心理理论的关系

本研究通过观察亲子互动游戏来考查母亲———孩子间心理状态术语、非心理状态术语使用与儿童心理理论发展的关系。实验结果表明,控制了年龄因素后,儿童心理理论发展和母亲心理状态术语使用存在显著相关,提示母亲有效地谈论心理状态对儿童心理理论的发展具有影响;儿童心理理论发展与其心理状态术语使用也存在显著相关,提示儿童将心理理论任务中涉及的表征问题与信念词所隐含的表征属性相联系是形成心理理论、正确使用心理状态术语的前提。当控制了母亲和儿童的心理状态术语使用总数后,母亲及孩子非心理状态术语的使用与儿童心理理论发展都不再存在显著相关,提示非心理状态术语的使用是以心理状态术语使用为中介而对儿童的心理理论发展产生影响。     

7-11岁儿童心理状态信息理解与使用的发展特点及关系

采用失言任务和改进的说服任务考察了153名7-11岁儿童的心理理论理解和使用能力的发展状况。结果发现：儿童的失言理解能力和心理状态信息使用能力7-9岁时发展迅速,9岁后趋于稳定;两种能力的发展趋势基本一致,两者呈现中度相关;8-9岁是儿童失言理解和心理状态信息使用发展的转折点。结果表明：心理状态理解和使用的能力是儿童心理理论发展的重要组成部分,两者的发展基本同步。     

儿童阅读与心理理论间的关系

阅读与心理理论(theory of mind, ToM)在儿童发展过程中都发挥着重要的作用, 梳理文献发现两者可能存在双向促进作用。儿童通过与家长或老师的共享阅读, 启动联合注意, 使用心理状态术语进行对话, 进一步根据社会想象力, 模拟社会互动, 从而促进儿童心理理论发展。另一方面, 在阅读过程中, 心理理论能够助力儿童从宏观的阅读观的建立、元认知阅读策略的使用、故事情境模型的构建, 到微观具体的短语、句子、语篇和多文本的理解等能力的提高, 这些证据揭示了心理理论可以从多方面促进儿童阅读能力的发展。进一步的神经生理证据发现, 阅读和心理理论这两个过程的神经活动是有一定重叠的。由此推测, 两者可能具备潜在的双向促进关系。未来需要更深入和长期的纵向追踪研究为两者的关系提供丰富的实证证据。此外, 还应进行更多中国的低龄儿童的研究。随着科技的发展和线上课程的盛行, 也应更多关注多媒体内容阅读对儿童心理理论的影响。     

同伴接纳、家庭因素与儿童心理理论的关系

以56名幼儿园大班儿童为被试,考察了同伴接纳和家庭因素与儿童心理理论的关系。结果发现:(1)6～7岁儿童的同伴接纳类型、家庭功能和其心理理论能力之间存在显著相关。同伴接纳程度高的儿童和家庭功能类型属于平衡型的儿童,心理理论能力较高。(2)家庭亲密度与儿童心理理论能力存在显著相关;(3)母亲的文化水平对儿童心理理论能力存在显著影响;(4)儿童性别、同伴接纳类型、家庭亲密度和母亲文化程度可以预测儿童心理理论发展水平。     

心理弹性儿童的心理理论

本研究探讨了心理弹性儿童与缺乏心理弹性儿童心理理论的差异及其心理弹性发展意蕴。对523名从小学三年级至初中二年级中小学生利用多信源汇聚操作甄别法,通过逆境/压力综合评定与心理社会发展功能综合评定,甄别出心理弹性儿童99人和缺乏心理弹性儿童176人。对全部被试施测12类心理理论任务。在控制了阅读能力、性别和年龄所进行的多元协方差分析(MANCOVA)结果发现：心理弹性儿童在心理理论得分总体上显著高于缺乏心理弹性儿童;对12类任务分别进行协方差分析(ANCOVA)表明,两组儿童心理理论得分显著性差异主要体现在诸如假装、讽刺、说服、双重欺骗、误解等5类任务上,白谎任务上组间差异临界显著,其余任务组间差异未达统计学意义显著性水平。以年龄和性别为控制变量所进行的偏相关分析结果提示,心理理论与心理社会发展功能之间存在显著的正向关联。最后较详细讨论了心理理论对心理弹性发展的意义。     

同伴交往、亲子交往与儿童心理理论发展的关系

采用经典的心理理论任务、同伴提名法、父母教养方式问卷以及在游戏情境中观察同伴交往行为和亲子交往行为等多种方法,探讨同伴交往、亲子交往与儿童心理理论发展的关系.88名3-6岁儿童及其家长参加了实验.研究结果表明:(1)交往类型中受欢迎儿童,其心理理论发展水平显著高于被拒绝和被忽视儿童.(2)民主型教养方式最有利于促进幼儿心理理论的发展,放任型教养方式最不利于幼儿心理理论的发展.(3)家长指导游戏的行为、分享情感的行为和使用心理状态术语的行为,有利于促进孩子心理理论的发展,而对孩子的冷漠最不利于孩子心理理论的发展.(4)相对于同伴交往,亲子交往对儿童心理理论的发展有更显著的预测力,其中家长和孩子的情感分享.对孩子遇到问题的解释及指导是促进孩子心理理论发展的重要影响因素.     

亲子交流与儿童心理理论的获得和发展：文化的视角

已有研究表明个体心理理论的获得和发展既有文化普遍性, 又表现出文化特异性。为了探讨儿童心理理论发展的影响因素, 越来越多的研究者开始关注社会交流的作用。亲子交流是儿童早期社会交流中很重要的组成部分, 与儿童心理理论的获得和发展密切相关。文章分别比较了抚养者的亲子谈话和儿童情景记忆的中西文化差异, 以及它们与心理理论发展的关系来理解中国儿童心理理论获得与发展的特异性, 最后提出了一些未来研究需要进一步探讨的关键问题。     

正念训练对3～4岁儿童社会行为的影响

为探讨正念训练对3～4岁儿童社会行为发展的作用效果,本研究采用准实验设计,将60名3～4岁儿童以班级为单位分配到正念训练组和对照组,在训练前后及训练结束三个月后,家长和教师分别评定儿童社会行为水平。结果发现：(1)前测中,训练组儿童的社会行为不同维度和对照组无显著差异;(2)后测及追踪数据表明,训练组儿童的害羞退缩和攻击性行为水平显著低于对照组,亲社会行为水平显著高于对照组;(3)家长评定和教师评定的结果基本一致;(4)儿童性别对正念干预效果没有显著影响。该研究结果证明正念训练对提高3～4岁儿童的社会行为具有积极影响,并且其效果稳定。     

Relations between mental verb and false belief understanding in Cantonese-speaking children

Previous research has shown that linguistic forms that codify mental contents bear a specific relation with children’s false belief understanding. These forms include mental verbs and their following complements, yet the two have not been considered separately. The current study examined the roles of mental verb semantics and the complement syntax in children’s false belief understanding. Independent tasks were used to measure verb meaning, complements, and false belief understanding such that the verbs in question were present only in the verb meaning test, and no linguistic devices biased toward false belief were used in the false belief test. We focused on (a) some mental verbs that obligatorily affirm or negate what follows and (b) sentential complements, the content of which is to be evaluated against the mind of another person, not reality. Results showed that only (a) predicted false belief understanding in a group of Cantonese-speaking 4-year-olds, controlling for nonverbal intelligence and general language ability. In particular, children’s understanding of the strong nonfactive semantics of the Cantonese verbs /ji5-wai4/ (“falsely think”) predicted false belief understanding most strongly. The current findings suggest that false belief understanding is specifically related to the comprehension of mental verbs that entail false thought in their semantics.     

The influence of language on theory of mind: a training study

This study investigated the role of language in the development of theory of mind. It was hypothesized that the acquisition of the syntactic and semantic properties of sentential complements would facilitate the development of a representational theory of mind. Sixty preschoolers who failed false belief and sentential complement pretests were randomly assigned to training on false belief, sentential complements, or relative clauses (as a control group). All the children were post-tested on a set of different theory of mind tasks, sentential complements and relative clauses. The main findings were that the group trained on sentential complements not only acquired the linguistic knowledge fostered by the training, but also significantly increased their scores on a range of theory of mind tasks. In contrast, false belief training only led to improved theory of mind scores but had no influence on language. The control group, trained on relative clauses, showed no improvement on theory of mind posttests. These findings are taken as evidence that the acquisition of sentential complements contributes to the development of theory of mind in preschoolers.     

成人言语输入对儿童早期单词获得影响的个案追踪

追踪观察一名婴儿(6~20个月), 分析其中看护者的言语输入特征及婴儿早期词汇获得的发展变化。主要对成人言语输入中动、名词比例、单词在句中的位置、具体环境等因素及婴儿早期动、名词理解和产生等方面进行探讨。结果显示, 成人言语输入中动词比例显著高于名词, 更多动词位于句首或句尾使得主语和宾语省略; 同时, 这种动词优势的输入特征促进儿童早期动词获得, 使得婴儿早期语言样本中动、名词理解相对比例与成人言语输入一致。这一结果表明, 婴儿词汇发展初期就已经利用言语或社会线索, 同时这种早期词汇组成中较高的动词比例进一步支持“名词优势”理论存在跨语言差异     

Cultural transmission through infant signs: Objects and actions in U.S. and Taiwan

Infant signs are intentionally taught/learned symbolic gestures which can be used to represent objects, actions, requests, and mental state. Through infant signs, parents and infants begin to communicate specific concepts earlier than children’s first spoken language. This study examines whether cultural differences in language are reflected in children’s and parents’ use of infant signs. Parents speaking East Asian languages with their children utilize verbs more often than do English-speaking mothers; and compared to their English-learning peers, Chinese children are more likely to learn verbs as they first acquire spoken words. By comparing parents’ and infants’ use of infant signs in the U.S. and Taiwan, we investigate cultural differences of noun/object versus verb/action bias before children’s first language. Parents reported their own and their children's use of first infant signs retrospectively. Results show that cultural differences in parents’ and children’s infant sign use were consistent with research on early words, reflecting cultural differences in communication functions (referential versus regulatory) and child-rearing goals (independent versus interdependent). The current study provides evidence that intergenerational transmission of culture through symbols begins prior to oral language.     

Examining the role of lexical frequency in the acquisition and processing of sentential complements

We present empirical data showing that the relative frequency with which a verb normally appears in a syntactic construction predicts young children's ability to remember and repeat sentences instantiating that construction. Children aged 2;10–5;8 years were asked to repeat grammatical and ungrammatical sentential complement sentences (e.g., ‘I think + S’). The sentences contained complement-taking verbs (CTVs) used with differing frequencies in children's natural speech. All children repeated sentences containing high frequency CTVs (e.g., think) more accurately than those containing low frequency CTVs (e.g., hear), and made more sophisticated corrections to ungrammatical sentences containing high frequency CTVs. The data suggest that, like adults, children are sensitive to lexico-constructional collocations. The implications for language acquisition are discussed.     

How toddlers begin to learn verbs

Any theory of language must account for how children learn verbs, the gateway to grammar. Yet verbs can be difficult to learn. Building on Gentner's 'natural partitions hypothesis' we suggest that, to learn a verb, infants must conceptualize components of events and map verbs in the ambient language onto those components. Although toddlers detect and categorize at least some of the conceptual underpinnings of verb categories, the mapping of verbs onto these representations is not transparent. Mapping is a difficult problem in its own right. The Emergentist Coalition Model that has been used to explain noun learning also begins to explain how children move from perceptual to social and then to linguistic information to link verbs to actions and events.     

Verb inflection and verb diversity in three populations: agrammatic speakers, normally developing children, and children with specific language impairment (SLI)

The present study focuses on the relation between a grammatical and a lexical-semantic aspect of verb production. The spontaneous speech of three different populations (normally developing children, agrammatic aphasics, and children with a specific language impairment) has been analyzed with respect to the proportion of finite clauses and the diversity of the produced lexical verbs. The group results show that in the three populations both the proportion of finite verbs and the variability of the lexical verbs is low. When the individual scores are considered, differences between the normally developing children and the language-impaired subjects show up. Whereas in normally developing children verb finiteness and verb variability go hand-in-hand, the reverse relationship between these variables is observed in the agrammatic aphasics and the children with a specific language impairment. Given this reverse relationship, it is probable to assume two separate disorders. We therefore suggest an impairment at the interface level where lexical information and syntactic structure are integrated during sentence production.     

Theory of mind and loneliness: Effects of a conversation-based training at school

Conversation-based training programmes are known to be effective in enhancing theory of mind (ToM). The possible consequences of such training programmes on the understanding of other constructs have rarely been investigated. The present research aimed to evaluate the effects of two different types of conversation-based training on ToM and loneliness. Two hundred and ten fourth and fifth graders (52% boys; Mage = 9.66 years, SD = 0.85), randomly divided into two groups (ToM and no-ToM training condition), were administered at a 5-week intervention. ToM and loneliness were measured before and twice after the intervention (1 week and 2 months later). Linear mixed-effects models showed that, soon after the intervention, children in the ToM training condition obtained significantly higher ToM scores and significantly lower loneliness scores compared to children in the no-ToM training condition. Nonetheless, at the follow-up, ToM and loneliness scores were not significantly different for the two training conditions. These findings suggest that a relatively short intervention based on group discussion of mental states is sufficient to improve mentalizing abilities and to tackle feelings of loneliness among fourth and fifth graders in the short but not in the long term.