Young Children's Understanding of Intention

Three studies were done to determine when children begin to understand people's intentions as mental-representational states (Searle's prior intentions) and as instantiated in purposive, goal-directed behaviors (Searle's intentions-in-action) that are distinguishable both from the people's desires or preferences and from the outcomes of the actions their intentions engender. Three- and four-year-olds were presented with stories in which the story characters' intentions differed both from their desires or preferences and from the outcomes of their efforts to carry out their intentions. The 3-year-olds, especially the younger ones, showed little ability to distinguish intentions from desires and outcomes. In contrast, most of the 4-year-olds were able to make these distinctions consistently. These and other recent differential studies suggest that children begin to develop a differentiated conception of intention at around 3 1/2 or 4 years of age.     

幼儿生气和伤心情绪情景理解

考察三类成人（113名幼儿母亲、42名幼儿教师、221名大学生）对西方研究者常用的22个生气和伤心情景中幼儿情绪的推断;以中国成人的情绪情景理解为标准,进一步考察120名4-6岁幼儿生气和伤心情景理解能力的发展。结果表明：三类成人一致推断的6个生气情景和6个伤心情景,与西方研究者的界定基本一致;幼儿的伤心情景理解能力显著高于生气情景理解能力;4岁幼儿的伤心情景理解能力显著低于5岁和6岁幼儿     

Young Children's Understanding of the Conditions for Knowledge Acquisition

We report 3 studies directed to children's understanding of how evidence leads to knowledge. The studies as a whole span a range of ages (4-, 6-, and 8-year-olds), a variety of sources of information (perception, communication, and inference), and a number of targets or recipients of the information (adult, child, baby, and self). Perception proved to be the easiest source to understand, and inference was the most difficult. There was no difference in the accuracy of judgments for the self and judgments for others. Judgments were least accurate for the baby, primarily because children tended to overestimate babies' ability to acquire knowledge from communication or inference. Although performance in general improved with age, the tendency to overestimate the baby was greatest among the oldest children. The results are discussed in terms of children's understanding of 2 contributors to knowledge formation: situational (the nature and adequacy of the informational source) and individual (the cognitive readiness of the recipient of the information).     

早期儿童关于图画与其所指物间关系的理解--利用两可图进行的考察

先前的研究表明,在3岁或更早儿童的观念中,二维图画与其所指物之间的关系是严格的一一对应的。本实验采用两可图对这一推断进行了检验,结果进一步证实了这一推断。实验还表明,儿童对二维图画的多重解释能力并不意味着一般意义上的心理理论的获得。数据显示,总体而言儿童对两可图的多重解释能力的形成时间稍早于完成错误信念任务能力的形成时间,但是尚不能确定两者之问是否有承继关系。     

幼儿对假装游戏中意图和行为作用的理解

关于儿童如何理解假装存在两种观点:一种观点认为幼儿能够从心理角度理解假装。另一种观点认为,幼儿只能从假装行为角度理解假装。本研究通过自制录像,考查了3～5岁幼儿对假装游戏中意图和行为作用的理解。实验中,给幼儿呈现3种不同类型的录像情境:有意图-有行为、有意图-无行为和无意图-有行为,要求幼儿回答录像中的主人公是否在假装。实验结果表明,随着幼儿年龄的增长,在录像中主人公明确表达其假装意图的情境下,幼儿能够从心理层面理解假装,并且3～4岁幼儿存在一个快速发展期;同时,假装实体的熟悉度可能影响幼儿对假装的理解。     

Basic Language Skills and Young Children's Understanding of Causal Connections During Storytelling

The current study examined the role of basic language skills for individual differences in preschoolers’ understanding of causal connections. Assessments of basic language skills, expressive vocabulary, phonological processing, and receptive language comprehension were examined in relation to the production of causal connections in a storytelling task, at two time periods. Similar to previous cross-sectional research, children's causal connections increased over six months. As hypothesized, expressive vocabulary and phonological processing predicted causal connections at Time 1. Six months later, only phonological processing predicted causal connections. Results provide new information regarding the significance of basic language skills for early narrative skills.     

Naming Facilitates Young Children's Understanding of Scale Models: Language and the Development of Symbolic Understanding

Two studies examined language and understanding of scale models. First, children (N = 16; ages 2;4 to 3;5) received either the standard DeLoache model task or a naming version (in which children are asked to name the hiding location before retrieving a hidden object). Language ability positively correlated with performance on the model task, and children had significantly more errorless retrievals in the naming condition. Study 2 examined naming and transfer effects by giving children (N = 18; ages 2;5–3;1) both versions of the model task. Language ability correlated significantly only with performance in the naming condition. Both prior experience and naming condition significantly improved performance, with the effects being additive. Language and children's development of symbolic understanding are discussed.     

他人知识状态觉知对幼儿名词学习的影响

本研究采用两个实验考察了他人知识状态觉知对不同语言能力幼儿名词习得的影响。参加实验的被试是来自上海市三所幼儿园的89名3～4岁幼儿。实验一发现,高语言能力幼儿在确定和不确定两种实验条件下的名词习得有显著差异,确定条件下的得分高于不确定条件。一般语言能力幼儿未表现出上述区别;实验二进一步发现高语言能力幼儿能忽视表面的语气线索所表达的迟疑,影响他们词语学习的是对他人知识状态的深层觉知。     

幼儿的情绪认知发展及其与社会行为发展的关系研究

研究通过采用家庭情绪表露问卷、表情辨识程序和幼儿社会行为教师评估问卷,对82名3～4岁幼儿的家庭情绪表露气氛、情绪认知和社会行为表现进行测查,并分析三者间的相互关系。结果表明:(1)幼儿的情绪认知与其亲社会行为和退缩行为显著相关;(2)家庭情绪表露与幼儿情绪认知发展显著相关;(3)家庭情绪表露可能通过影响幼儿的情绪认知发展,进而影响幼儿的社会行为表现。     

幼儿对于图画作者情绪状态与其作品间关系的认知

采用将作者情绪状态与图画作品相匹配的方法,分别以线条、颜色和内容为线索,考察了3.5~5.5岁儿童对图画作者情绪状态与其作品间关系的认知发展。结果表明:3.5岁儿童尚不能将作者情绪状态与图画特点联系起来,4.5岁儿童开始能够将作者情绪状态与图画特点联系起来,5.5岁儿童的水平在此基础上又有明显的发展。儿童对作者情绪状态与图画间关系的把握显示出一定的性别差异,但对图画传递的情绪信息的认知在各要素形式(颜色、线条、内容)之间差异不明显。     

儿童情绪理解发展的研究述评

近20年来,情绪理解越来越成为大家关注一个的研究领域。作者认为情绪理解可以分为对情绪状态的理解和对情绪过程的理解两部分。情绪状态的理解包括表情识别、情绪情景识别和混合情绪理解等,情绪过程的理解涉及情绪原因的理解、愿望与信念对情绪作用的理解、情绪表现规则知识和情绪调节的理解等。作者系统介绍了情绪理解的研究方法及相关研究成果,同时从研究方法和研究内容上提出目前研究的局限性,在方法上有必要对研究材料的文化适用性进行标准化,对问题和情景进行严格设计,降低对儿童语言能力的要求,还可以补充自然语言分析等方法;在内容上有必要深入探讨情绪理解过程及其作用的内部机制,开展情绪理解作用的实验研究,加强对情绪理解的个体内部影响因素的考察     

学前儿童对疾病的认知

通过三个研究分别探查了教育条件不同的两组学前儿童能否以疾病这一生命现象为指标做出生物和非生物的本体区分;他们是否理解疾病的产生和康复不受心理意图控制;以及他们对疾病原因的认识。结果显示,3、4、5岁学前儿童在分类作业中的认知成绩随年龄逐渐提高,他们能够认识疾病不受意图控制。其对疾病原因的解释既不用意图也不用道德准则,而主要是从行为水平,表现出“朴素生物学”的认知,但其认知与成人的认知和科学的生物学概念有明显差距。教育条件影响儿童的疾病认知成绩     

Young Children's Theory of Mind and Emotion

Abstract

In three experiments, children aged 3 to 7 years were tested for their understanding of the impact of beliefs and desires on emotion. Children watched while animal characters were offered various types of container and then predicted their emotional reaction. In Experiment 1, the children (but not the characters) knew that the desirable contents of each container had been removed. The majority of 6-year-olds and a minority of 4-year-olds understood that the characters would be happy with the gift, given their mistaken belief about its contents. In Experiment 2, characters were given containers apparently containing an object they wanted but really containing an object they did not want, or vice versa. Predictions of emotion based on both the desire and the mistaken belief of the characters increased with age. In Experiment 3, characters were given closed containers that might or might not contain an item they wanted. Both 3-and 5-year-olds grasped that the characters' emotional reaction would depend on both their (unconfirmed) beliefs and desires about its content.

The experiments show that preschool children deploy a theory-like conception of mind in predicting emotional reactions. They understand that the emotional impact of a situation depends not on its objective features but on the beliefs and desires that are brought to it.     

早期儿童的游戏与心理理论的发展

选择在一日活动中儿童可自由支配的游戏时间存在明显差异的两所幼儿园,采用错误信念任务比较两园小班、中班儿童心理理论的发展状况,结果显示,半年在园经验的小班儿童在完成错误信念任务上存在显著差异,表明早期儿童的游戏,尤其是装扮游戏对儿童心理理论的发展有积极作用;但一年半在园经验的中班儿童在完成错误信念任务上不存在显著差异,由此推论儿童心理理论的发展受成熟的制约,成熟起主导作用。研究为理解幼儿园以游戏为基本活动提供了参考依据。     

儿童对生物目的指向性的认知发展

目的指向性是生物的基本特征,是区分生物和非生物的重要指标。学前儿童能否根据目的指向性来区分生物与非生物,主要有3种观点：能区分、不能区分、认为学前儿童只能理解动物具有目的指向性,但不能理解植物的目的指向性。该文分层综述了学前儿童对生物包括人、动物和植物目的指向性的认知及学前儿童对不熟悉物体目的指向性的归因研究,并提出了需要进一步探讨的问题。     

Preschool Children's Understanding of Conflicting Desires

This study examines the conditions under which 3-year-olds can use the desires of others to predict others' behavior. In Study 1, children were highly successful in predicting the actions of an agent based on that agent's desires when they were explicitly told about the agent's desires, even when the agent's desires were strongly different from the children's own. Study 2 showed that 3-year-olds could also predict the actions of an agent when they had to infer the agent's desires from the previous good and bad experiences of the agent and from information about the agent's general behavioral preferences. Studies 3 and 4 demonstrated that children had difficulty predicting an agent's behavior when they both had to infer the desire of the agent and this desire conflicted with their own desires. These results suggest that preschoolers' desire reasoning is sophisticated but also may be influenced by the processing demands of the task.     

小学儿童集体主义意识研究

文化心理学家早就确认,东西方文化间重要的结构差异,是个体主义和集体主义的对照。根据Triandis的观点,集体主义指一种由紧密联系的个体所构成的社会模式,这些人以集体为导向,对集体义不容辞,集体(家庭和社会团体)目标优先于个人目标。从历史、政治、文化和宗教看,中国文化总体上是集体主义社会(Bond,1986)。     

The Role of Consciousness in Grasping and Understanding

One sometimes believes a proposition without grasping it. For example, a complete achromat might believe that ripe tomatoes are red without grasping this proposition. My aim in this paper is to shed light on the difference between merely believing a proposition and grasping it. I focus on two possible theories of grasping: the inferential theory, which explains grasping in terms of inferential role, and the phenomenal theory, which explains grasping in terms of phenomenal consciousness. I argue that the phenomenal theory is more plausible than the inferential theory.