Declercq Christelle, Baltazart Véronique, Didon Davina
Universite de Reims Champagne-Ardenne, 51096 Reims Cedex, France.
Can J Exp Psychol. 2010 Jun;64(2):142-52. doi: 10.1037/a0020175.
This study examined the evolution of metaphor understanding in 4- to 7-year-old children. In Experiment 1, children listened to metaphoric and literal statements that were preceded by a context, and then had to choose among three proposed interpretations (literal, contextual, and correct for metaphors; one correct and two erroneous for literal statements), which one corresponded to the statement. Results showed that, between 4 and 7, children improved at choosing the correct interpretation only for metaphors, and that they frequently chose contextual interpretations. The metaphor-specific improvement might be explained in terms of a gain in cognitive flexibility, since for these statements, three acceptable interpretations were proposed compared to only one for literal statements. In Experiment 2, for all statements, children had to choose between three proposed interpretations, one correct and two erroneous. The difference between metaphors and literal statements was replicated. Metaphor understanding thus evolves between 4 and 7; depending on their age, children use the context or perform a semantic analysis of the words composing the statements.
本研究考察了4至7岁儿童隐喻理解能力的发展。在实验1中，儿童先听一段带有语境的隐喻性陈述和字面陈述，然后必须从三种给出的解释中进行选择（字面解释、语境解释以及适用于隐喻的正确解释；对于字面陈述，一种正确，两种错误），选出与陈述相符的解释。结果表明，在4至7岁之间，儿童仅在选择隐喻的正确解释方面有所进步，并且他们经常选择语境解释。隐喻理解能力的特定进步可以用认知灵活性的提高来解释，因为对于这些陈述，给出了三种可接受的解释，而字面陈述只有一种。在实验2中，对于所有陈述，儿童必须从三种给出的解释中进行选择，一种正确，两种错误。隐喻陈述和字面陈述之间的差异再次出现。因此，隐喻理解能力在4至7岁之间发展；根据年龄不同，儿童会利用语境或对构成陈述的词语进行语义分析。
