Durham University, UK.
Br J Dev Psychol. 2011 Sep;29(Pt 3):680-6. doi: 10.1111/j.2044-835X.2011.02038.x. Epub 2011 May 16.
Relations between interior self-knowledge and (a) imaginary companion (IC) status and (b) theory of mind (ToM) abilities were investigated in a sample (N= 80) of 4- to 7-year-olds. Interior self-knowledge was assessed in terms of the extent to which children acknowledged that they (rather than an adult) were the authority on unobservable aspects of themselves (e.g., dreaming, thinking, hunger). Compared with children without an IC, those who possessed a parentally corroborated IC ascribed less interior self-knowledge to an adult, with a trend for them to assign more interior self-knowledge to themselves. Children's interior self-knowledge judgments were not associated with their ToM performance. IC status was also unrelated to ToM performance. We consider how having an IC may provide children with opportunities to distinguish between knowledge that is inaccessible to an external observer and that which an external observer may glean without being told.
本研究调查了儿童的内省知识与(a)想象伙伴(IC)状态和(b)心理理论(ToM)能力之间的关系。研究样本由 4 至 7 岁的 80 名儿童组成。内省知识的评估依据是儿童在多大程度上承认他们(而不是成年人)是自己不可观察方面的权威(例如，做梦、思考、饥饿)。与没有 IC 的儿童相比，那些拥有父母证实的 IC 的儿童赋予成年人的内省知识较少，而赋予自己的内省知识则呈现出增加的趋势。儿童的内省知识判断与他们的 ToM 表现无关。IC 状态也与 ToM 表现无关。我们考虑了拥有 IC 如何为儿童提供机会，以区分不可为外部观察者获取的知识和外部观察者无需被告知即可获取的知识。
