比例推理的过度使用及其认知机制:一项发展性的负启动研究

从抑制控制模型出发,采用负启动范式探究过度使用比例推理的认知机制。研究包括3个实验,以小学生、中学生和大学生为被试,分别考察了抑制控制在解决缺值应用题、图片推理任务中的作用,以及数字比(整数比、非整数比)是否对抑制控制过程有影响。结果发现:小学生、中学生和大学生在两类实验任务中均出现了负启动效应,但负启动量不存在年级差异;在图片推理任务中,不同数字比类型下的负启动量具有显著差异。研究结果支持了抑制控制模型的观点,即成功解决问题不仅需要掌握问题的内在逻辑,更需要对不恰当策略进行抑制;在解决问题的过程中,无论是儿童、青少年还是成人都需要抑制控制的参与,三者在抑制控制效率上没有差异;数字比类型对抑制过程有影响,但仅限于图片推理问题。

The overuse of proportional reasoning and its cognitive mechanism:A developmental negative priming study

The overuse of proportional reasoning refers to a phenomenon that students improperly use proportional reasoning to solve non-proportional problems (e.g.,addition problems in the present study).No research to date has directly illuminated the cognitive mechanism of the phenomenon since it is widely found in different countries and different ages.Therefore,we aimed to explore the potential cognitive mechanism in the current study from a new perspective based on the Inhibitory Control Model.The model suggests that solving a problem successfully not only requires the grasp of the underlying logic but also the inhibition of the misleading strategies.Accordingly,we proposed a hypothesis that the failure to inhibit the improper proportional thinking rather than the failure to grasp the additive logic would lead to students' overuse of proportional reasoning since they may have already mastered additive thinking.We conducted three experiments with sixth-grade children,eighth-grade adolescents,and young adults (college students) to test this hypothesis using the Negative Priming (NP) paradigm.Participants performed a pair of problems:an addition problem in the prime stage,a proportion problem in the probe stage.The logic of NP paradigm is as follows:if participants inhibited the proportional strategy in the prime stage,they would pay a price to activate it in the subsequent probe stage as revealed by a slower response or a higher error rate.In experiment 1,we used missing-value word problems.For each test trial,an addition problem served as a prime and a proportion problem served as a probe;for each control trial,a neutral problem served as a prime and a proportion problem served as a probe.Participants' performance was measured on the probe stage and their performance was compared between test-probes and control-probes.We found a NP effect in all the three age groups,but there was no significant difference among them.In experiment 2,we reduced task difficulty and cognitive load by creating a visual reasoning task and replicated the results in experiment 1.In experiment 3,we manipulated the number ratio (integer vs.non-integer) of the tasks,and the other conditions were the same as those we did in experiment 1 and experiment 2.Again,NP effects were found in missing-value word problem no matter number ratio was an integer or not.However,in the visual reasoning task,the NP effect only existed in the integer ratio condition.These results indicated:First,children,adolescents and adults all need inhibitory control to overcome the overuse of proportional reasoning.This confirms that success in problem-solving requires not only the grasp the underlying logic of the problem but also the inhibition of a misleading strategy.Second,the potential age difference in inhibitory control ability cannot be eliminated though we found no developmental difference in inhibitory control efficiency according to the magnitude of the NP effect in this study.More research with other methods (e.g.,ERP,fMRI) is needed to shed light on this.These results also have important implication for mathematic education.Intervention program that aim at improving inhibitory control or meta-cognition ability for students with low math achievement should be considered.