Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-8205, USA.
Child Dev. 2010 Jan-Feb;81(1):390-409. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01402.x.
To what extent do children understand that biological processes fall into 1 coherent domain unified by distinct causal principles? In Experiments 1 and 2 (N = 125) kindergartners are given triads of biological and psychological processes and asked to identify which 2 members of the triad belong together. Results show that 5-year-olds correctly cluster biological processes and separate them from psychological ones. Experiments 3 and 4 (N = 64) examine whether or not children make this distinction because they understand that biological and psychological processes operate according to fundamentally different causal mechanisms. The results suggest that 5-year-olds do possess this understanding, and furthermore, they have intuitions about the nature of these different mechanisms.
儿童在何种程度上理解生物过程属于由不同因果原则统一起来的一个连贯领域？在实验 1 和实验 2 中（N=125），幼儿园儿童被给予生物和心理过程的三联体，并被要求识别三联体中的哪两个成员属于同一类。结果表明，5 岁儿童正确地将生物过程聚类，并将其与心理过程区分开来。实验 3 和实验 4（N=64）检验儿童是否做出这种区分是因为他们理解生物和心理过程遵循根本不同的因果机制。结果表明，5 岁儿童确实有这种理解，并且，他们对这些不同机制的性质有直觉。
