Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 61820, USA.
Cogn Psychol. 2012 May;64(3):161-85. doi: 10.1016/j.cogpsych.2011.11.002. Epub 2011 Dec 21.
What are the representations and learning mechanisms that underlie conceptual development? The present research provides evidence in favor of the claim that this process is guided by an early-emerging predisposition to think and learn about abstract kinds. Specifically, three studies (N=192) demonstrated that 4- to 7-year-old children have better recall for novel information about kinds (e.g., that dogs catch a bug called "fep") than for similar information about individuals (e.g., that a particular dog catches a bug called "fep"). By showing that children are particularly likely to retain information about kinds, this work not only provides a first empirical demonstration of a phenomenon that may be key to conceptual development but also makes it apparent that young children's thinking is suffused with abstractions rather than being perceptually-based and concrete.
概念发展的表现形式和学习机制是什么？本研究为以下主张提供了证据，即这一过程受到一种早期出现的、倾向于思考和学习抽象类别的固有倾向的指导。具体来说，三项研究（N=192）表明，4 至 7 岁的儿童对关于类别的新信息（例如，狗捕捉一种叫做“fep”的虫子）的记忆要好于对关于个体的相似信息（例如，特定的狗捕捉一种叫做“fep”的虫子）的记忆。通过表明儿童特别有可能保留关于类别的信息，这项工作不仅首次提供了一个可能是概念发展关键的现象的实证证据，而且还表明，幼儿的思维充满了抽象概念，而不是基于感知和具体的。
