儿童表征深度的微观变化:路线、速度及来源

以往研究表明,表征深度的发展是一个随年龄增长而单调上升的过程,但这些年龄尺度上的横断研究难以说明表征深度变化的发生过程及其机制.本研究采用微观发生法,以齿轮推断任务为材料,探讨了68名小学五年级儿童表征深度的变化路线、速度及来源.结果表明,在整个实验期间,儿童的表征深度发生了显著变化;其变化路线主要体现为从最基本的一级水平向更高级的二、三级水平的递增过程,但这种变化路线的个体间差异较大;变化速度体现出先快后慢的特点;上述变化特点与练习及自我解释、练习模式的特征以及任务难度等因素有关.

The Micro-Change of Representational Depth: Path,Rate and Sources

As a key index of cognitive development, the representational depth refers to the highest level of relations in a problem represented by individuals. Previous studies have revealed that the development of representational depth is a monotonic increasing process with age. However, these cross-sectional studies conducted in a long time scale (e.g. several years) could only reveal the differences of representational depth in the group level at different ages. Micro-genetic study with dense observation could reveal the change process of representational depth and its mechanism. Based on a sample of 68 fifth graders, the present study used the micro-genetic method to explore the change path and rate of representational depth occurred in the Gear-System task as well as the sources of these changes. There were six sessions in the experiment. In each session the turning direction of driving gear was presented and then participants were required to infer the turning direction of target gear. They were asked to think aloud about their solution attempts, and the recorded protocol was analyzed to determine their representational depth in each task. Results showed that: (1) the development of children's representational depth could occur at a short time scale. (2) This micro-change path is mainly a monotonic increasing process from first-level depth to third-level depth, while there are great individual differences. (3) The rate of change is more rapid at the beginning stage than at the following stages. (4) More frequent practice and self explanation, more complex practice patterns and more difficult tasks could facilitate the increasing of representational depth. It is concluded that the change path of representational depth at the macro and micro levels may be similar, which suggests that representational depth can be viewed as a key index of children's ability to represent problems. Furthermore, although the frequency of practice and the difficulty of task have an effect on representational depth, the effect seems to be weakened as practice continued.