4—6岁幼儿空间方位传递性推理能力的发展

该研究旨在探查4、5、6岁幼儿空间上下和前后方位传递性推理能力的发展水平及不同实验条件(一致、模糊、冲突)下儿童的传递性推理能力。为了尽量降低记忆对推理的影响，要求幼儿在前提呈现的条件下按前提方位关系进行传递性推理操作。被试为幼儿园4、5、6岁组儿童各24人，其中男女各半。主要结果表明：4岁幼儿开始萌发空间前后和上下方位的传递性推理能力；从4岁到6岁，“上下”方位传递性推理能力的发展优于“前后”方位；4—6岁幼儿还不能完全摆脱知觉干扰因素的影响，形成稳定的传递性推理能力。

DEVELOPMENT OF THE SPATIAL TRANSITIVE INFERENCE ABILITY OF 4-6 YEAR OLD CHILDREN

The purpose of the study was to explore the development of spatial transitive inference ability of preschoolers, comparing the children's inference ability in 'front and behind' and 'up and down' tasks, and to investigate their transitive inferences in different experimental situations (consistent, ambiguous, contradictory). So two kinds of spatial positions were used, one was'front and behind', the other was'up and down'. In order to lessen the memory load, the participants were asked to make transitive inference operations according to the premises presented to them. In 'front and behind' tasks, five kinds of models of small animal toys that can stand consisting of tiger, ox, sheep, pig, monkey with three respectively were used. In'up and down' tasks, six kinds of magnetic models of small animal toys consisting of bear, rabbit, cat, pig, dog, and panda with three respectively, and a vertical iron plate were used. There were two steps in each task. First, two-toy premises were presented to the children, then they were given three extra toy models and asked to put them in order. There were two premises in each task: A-B,B-C. If A was in front of (or above) C by sight, that was a consistent situation. If A was the same level as C by sight, that was a ambiguous situation. If A was behind (or below) that was a contradictory situation. A total of 72 children from a kindergarten were examined. There were 24 children in each 4,5,6 year old group (12 boys, 12 girls). The results showed: (1) children as young as 4 years of age developed the ability of spatial transitive inference; (2) the development of cognitive capacity of'up and down' position was faster than that of 'front and behind' position; (3) 4-6 year old children couldn't completely ignore the situational influences in order to form a kind of stable transitive inference ability.