Caillies Stéphanie, Le Sourn-Bissaoui Sandrine
Department of Psychology, Université de Reims, France.
Can J Exp Psychol. 2013 Jun;67(2):108-16. doi: 10.1037/a0028606. Epub 2012 Jun 11.
Which skills are required to start understanding ambiguous, unfamiliar nondecomposable idioms in context? In this study, we examined the contributions of both second-order false-belief understanding and working memory to the understanding of unfamiliar nondecomposable idioms in children aged 6, 7 and 8 years old. We assumed that, in order to process these idioms, children would have to be able to (a) take a double perspective (Perner & Wimmer, 1985), (b) maintain both literal and figurative meanings as being different from the expression itself, and (c) take the context into account. Six-, 7- and 8-year-old children performed three, second-order false-belief tasks and three working-memory tasks, and listened to 15 nondecomposable idioms inserted into a context, before performing a multiple-choice task. Results indicated that nondecomposable idiom understanding was explained by theory-of-mind skills.
要开始在语境中理解模棱两可、不熟悉且不可分解的习语需要哪些技能？在本研究中，我们考察了二阶错误信念理解能力和工作记忆对6岁、7岁和8岁儿童理解不熟悉的不可分解习语的作用。我们假设，为了处理这些习语，儿童必须能够：(a) 采取双重视角（佩尔纳和维默，1985）；(b) 将字面意义和比喻意义都视为与表达本身不同的意义；(c) 考虑语境。6岁、7岁和8岁的儿童在进行多项选择题任务之前，先完成了三项二阶错误信念任务和三项工作记忆任务，并听了15个插入到语境中的不可分解习语。结果表明，不可分解习语的理解可以用心理理论技能来解释。
