Bugental D B, Blue J, Cortez V, Fleck K, Rodriguez A
Department of Psychology, University of California, Santa Barbara 93106.
Child Dev. 1992 Aug;63(4):774-86.
Children between the ages of 5 and 10 years watched a videotape of a child having a routine medical exam. Embedded within the scenes were systematic variations of depicted facial affect shown by doctor and child. Measures were taken of autonomic reactions and information-processing errors in response to positive, neutral, and negative affective cues. For 5-6-year-olds, processing errors were greatest in the negative affect condition. Additionally, peak increases in heart rate (HR) and skin conductance level (SCL) were demonstrated by 5-6-year-olds in response to negative affect shown by the witnessed child; increases in HR were in turn predictive of processing errors. Older children (9-10 years) showed trends reflecting reduced processing errors in response to witnessed negative affect. It was suggested that younger children respond to salient threat cues with a "defensive" response pattern that is relatively adaptive at younger but not older ages.
5至10岁的儿童观看了一段关于一个孩子进行常规医学检查的录像带。在这些场景中，医生和孩子所表现出的面部表情有系统的变化。针对积极、中性和消极情感线索，测量了自主反应和信息处理错误。对于5至6岁的儿童，在消极情感条件下处理错误最多。此外，5至6岁的儿童在看到被观察孩子表现出的消极情感时，心率（HR）和皮肤电导率水平（SCL）出现峰值增加；心率增加反过来又预示着处理错误。年龄较大的儿童（9至10岁）表现出一种趋势，即对所目睹的消极情感的反应中处理错误减少。研究表明，年幼儿童对显著的威胁线索会以一种“防御性”反应模式做出反应，这种模式在较年幼时相对具有适应性，但在较大年龄时则不然。
