Department of Psychology, Colby College, Waterville, ME 04901 , USA.
Infant Behav Dev. 2012 Jun;35(3):606-12. doi: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2012.04.007. Epub 2012 Jun 27.
In studies of infant categorization (especially sequential touching), replicas of real objects are often utilized on the assumption that infants treat replicas as they do reals. Do infants categorize replicas of objects in the same way as they categorize real objects? This question was addressed in a sequential touching task, where 14- and 18-month-olds were presented with four sets of objects: real telephones and hairbrushes, real lemons and pears, replica telephones and hairbrushes, and replica lemons and pears. On the whole, mean run length, number of contacts, and appropriate actions did not differ between real and replica objects. Moreover, mean run length was significantly greater than chance for telephones and hairbrushes, but not for lemons and pears; both ages categorized the former sets but not the latter. Infants of this age appear to treat replicas as equivalent to reals, and replicas are appropriate stimuli to use in the sequential touching procedure to address questions of infants' categorization.
在婴儿分类研究(尤其是连续触摸研究)中,通常使用实物复制品,因为研究者假设婴儿会像对待真实物品一样对待复制品。婴儿是否会以相同的方式对物体的复制品进行分类,就像对真实物体进行分类一样?在一项连续触摸任务中,研究人员对 14 个月和 18 个月大的婴儿展示了四组物体:真实的电话和梳子、真实的柠檬和梨、真实的电话和梳子、真实的柠檬和梨。总的来说,真实物体和复制品物体的平均触摸长度、接触次数和适当的动作没有差异。此外,对于电话和梳子来说,平均触摸长度显著大于随机值,但对于柠檬和梨来说并非如此;两个年龄段的婴儿都对前一组物体进行了分类,但对后一组物体没有进行分类。这个年龄段的婴儿似乎将复制品视为与真实物品等同,并且复制品是在连续触摸程序中用于解决婴儿分类问题的合适刺激物。