Farrar M J, Raney G E, Boyer M E
Department of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville 32611-2065.
Child Dev. 1992 Jun;63(3):673-91.
The role of knowledge in children's inferences was investigated in 3 experiments. Experiment 1 examined developmental changes in the role of categorical membership, perceptual appearance, and item complexity in inferences for natural kind and artifact concepts. Preschoolers (5-year-olds), second graders (8-year-olds), and fourth graders (10-year-olds) were taught novel properties about target concepts and asked whether each of 4 probes had those properties. Probes varied in category membership and perceptual appearance relative to the target item. Item complexity also varied. Experiments 2 and 3 examined inferences with known and unknown concepts for familiar and unfamiliar properties. Older children's knowledge led to differential weighting of categorical information over appearance but only for known concepts and/or familiar properties. Preschoolers made no distinction between category and appearance for either known or unknown concepts. Additionally, as target item complexity increased, older children made more inferences than preschoolers. No differences between inferences about natural kind and artifact concepts were found. The role of theories and knowledge in children's drawing of inferences is discussed.
通过3个实验对知识在儿童推理中的作用进行了研究。实验1考察了在对自然类概念和人造物概念进行推理时，类别归属、感知外观和项目复杂性所起作用的发展变化。向学龄前儿童（5岁）、二年级学生（8岁）和四年级学生（10岁）传授有关目标概念的新属性，并询问4个探测项目中的每一个是否具有这些属性。探测项目在相对于目标项目的类别归属和感知外观方面存在差异。项目复杂性也有所不同。实验2和实验3考察了对于熟悉和不熟悉的属性，运用已知和未知概念进行的推理。年龄较大儿童的知识导致他们在对已知概念和/或熟悉属性进行推理时，对类别信息的权重高于外观信息，但仅针对已知概念和/或熟悉属性。对于已知或未知概念，学龄前儿童在类别和外观之间没有做出区分。此外，随着目标项目复杂性的增加，年龄较大的儿童比学龄前儿童做出了更多的推理。未发现对自然类概念和人造物概念进行推理之间存在差异。讨论了理论和知识在儿童推理过程中的作用。
