Huttenlocher Janellen, Lourenco Stella F
Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Dev Sci. 2007 Nov;10(6):741-6. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2007.00609.x.
Both animals and human toddlers can find an object in a rectangular enclosure after they have been disoriented. They use geometric cues (relative lengths of walls) to discriminate among different corners (e.g. long wall to the left, short to the right). It has been claimed that this ability is 'modular', i.e. exclusively geometric. The present study demonstrates that the ability toddlers exhibit is a more general one, namely, an ability to discriminate relative quantity. Using a square enclosure, we show that toddlers use the relative sizes of the figures on different walls to characterize different corners. We also show that they do not use simple non-relative features to distinguish different corners. Possible reasons for differences in the ability to use relative versus non-relative cues are discussed.
动物和人类幼儿在迷失方向后都能在矩形围栏中找到物体。他们利用几何线索（墙壁的相对长度）来区分不同的角落（例如，左边是长墙，右边是短墙）。有人声称这种能力是“模块化的”，即完全基于几何。本研究表明，幼儿表现出的这种能力更为普遍，即区分相对数量的能力。使用正方形围栏，我们发现幼儿利用不同墙壁上图形的相对大小来表征不同的角落。我们还表明，他们不会使用简单的非相对特征来区分不同的角落。文中讨论了在使用相对线索和非相对线索的能力上存在差异的可能原因。
