四岁儿童的自我参照效应研究

本研究通过两个实验探讨4岁儿童的自我参照效应。实验1与实验2分别采用3(4岁、5岁与7岁儿童)×2(自我参照与他人参照)与2(3岁与4岁儿童)×2(自我参照与他人参照)的混合设计。120名被试对物品进行所有权(ownership)识别并报告"这是我的××"或"这是李明的××",然后将图片放入相应的纸盒并再次报告,两分钟后进行自由回忆。结果显示:(1)自我参照条件下4岁组、5岁组与7岁组儿童自由回忆率有显著差异,他人参照条件下没有差异;(2)自我参照条件下4岁组儿童的自由回忆率显著高于3岁组,他人参照条件下没有差异。这说明,4岁儿童已经具有自我参照效应,同时,随着年龄的增长,自我参照条件下的自由回忆率呈现递增趋势,表明儿童自我参照效应的发展性特点。

A Study on Self-reference Effect in Children aged 4 Years

We adopted two experiments to explore developmental trend of the self-reference effect and determine the age at which children begin to show the self-reference effect.One is a 3 (age:4,5 and 7 years old)×2 (cue:self-reference and other-reference) mixed design and 72 children participated; another is a 2 (age:3 and 4 years old) ×2 (cue:self-reference and other-reference) mixed design and 48 children participated.Each of the twelve object pictures was marked with sign which means the object belongs to "me" or "Li Ming",pictures were randomly presented sequentially,children were asked to report aloud"This is my ××" or "This is Li Ming's ××" according to the signs,then received the picture from the experimenter and placed the picture in a paper box which was marked with the corresponding sign,then presented the next one.Two minutes later,a surprised recall test was required.The results showed as follows:(1) there was significant difference among 4-,5-and 7-year-olds under the self-reference condition,but no difference was found under the other-reference condition; (2) the 4-year-olds recalled more than the 3-year-olds under the self-reference condition,and there was no difference under the other-reference condition.The results indicated 4-year-olds can show self-reference advantage,meanwhile,with the growth of age,recall rate demonstrated a developmental trend under the self-reference condition,which suggested the developmental characteristic of the self-reference in childhood.To date,the previous studies (Sui & Zhu,2005) which explored the development of the self-reference discovered the self-reference at 5 years old.We suggest that when tasks are suitable for children who are from at least 18 months old to 4 years old,SRE would emerge in these children,which is consisted with Marsh et al.(2002) who suggested that 18-month-old children can recognize themselves in mirrors.