Wang Su-hua, Baillargeon Renée
Department of Psychology, University of California, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA.
Cogn Psychol. 2008 Jun;56(4):284-326. doi: 10.1016/j.cogpsych.2007.06.003. Epub 2008 Jan 3.
As they observe or produce events, infants identify variables that help them predict outcomes in each category of events. How do infants identify a new variable? An explanation-based learning (EBL) account suggests three essential steps: (1) observing contrastive outcomes relevant to the variable; (2) discovering the conditions associated with these outcomes; and (3) generating an explanation for the condition-outcome regularity discovered. In Experiments 1-3, 9-month-old infants watched events designed to "teach" them the variable height in covering events. After watching these events, designed in accord with the EBL account, the infants detected a height violation in a covering event, three months earlier than they ordinarily would have. In Experiments 4-6, the "teaching" events were modified to remove one of the EBL steps, and the infants no longer detected the height violation. The present findings thus support the EBL account and help specify the processes by which infants acquire their physical knowledge.
当婴儿观察或产生事件时，他们会识别有助于预测各类事件结果的变量。婴儿如何识别一个新变量呢？基于解释的学习（EBL）理论提出了三个基本步骤：（1）观察与该变量相关的对比性结果；（2）发现与这些结果相关的条件；（3）为所发现的条件-结果规律生成一种解释。在实验1-3中，9个月大的婴儿观看了旨在“教导”他们关于覆盖事件中高度变量的事件。在观看了根据EBL理论设计的这些事件后，婴儿在一个覆盖事件中察觉到了高度违规，比他们通常察觉到的时间早了三个月。在实验4-6中，“教导”事件被修改以去除EBL的一个步骤，婴儿就不再察觉到高度违规了。因此，目前的研究结果支持了EBL理论，并有助于明确婴儿获取物理知识的过程。
