中美成年人和老年人数学能力发展的比较研究

采用一套心理计量测验考察中美两国青老年被试在算术能力、知觉速度及空间方位能力方面的操作是否有国家间和年龄组间差异，不同领域之间是否有不同的能力模式。测验结果表明：在知觉速度和空间方位测验上，中美青年组的操作成绩均明显超过老年组；在算术能力测验上，中国青年组的成绩仍超过老年组，但美国青老年组间则无明显差异；中国青年组在算术能力测验上成绩优于美国同龄组，在其它两个测验上则无明显差异；在所有能力测验上中美老年组的成绩都无明显差异；总的模式表明，美国青年的算术能力呈逐代下降趋势，中国儿童和青年的算术能力远远超过美国同龄人的状况可能只是个近期的现象。

A COMPANAIVE STUDY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MATHEMATICAL ABILITY OF YOUNGER OR OLDER CHINESE AND AMERICAN ADULTS

Groups of younger and older Ametican and Chinese adults were administered a battery of psychometric tests spanning the numerical facility (i. e., arithmetic), prceptual speed, and spatial orientation ability domains. In the tests of perceptual speed and spatial orientation, the younger adults showed consistent and substantive performance advantages over the older adults in both the U. S, and Chinese groups. In the arithmetic tests, the youngr Chinese adults substantially outperformed the older Chinese adults,but the groups of younger and older American adults had comparable arithmetical abilities. Cross-national compatisons indicated that the younger Chinese adults outperformed the younger American adults in the arithmetic tests, but the performance of the younger groups was comparable in the Perceptual speed and spatial orientation measures. The performance of the older American and Chinese adults was generally comparable in all of the ability measures, including arithmetic. The overall pattern suggests that the basic arithmetical abilities of the younger American adults manifest a cross-generational decline and that the advantage of Chinese adults orer American adults in complex arithmetic is a relatively recent phenomenon.