Pouthas V, Droit S, Jacquet A Y, Wearden J H
Laboratoire de Psychobiologie de l'Enfant, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, C.N.R.S., Paris, France.
J Exp Anal Behav. 1990 Jan;53(1):21-31. doi: 10.1901/jeab.1990.53-21.
Children aged 4.5, 7, or 11 years received an experimental session in which a contingency was placed on button-press duration. Each discrete trial was followed by a brief verbal probe asking a question about the contingency requirement. Other groups of children received an identical task followed by a postexperimental interview. Level of adaptation to the duration contingency tended to increase with age in subjects receiving posttrial verbal probes, but not for those who were interviewed. Eleven-year-olds in the verbal probe condition showed a strong correlation between accurate temporal differentiation and number of verbalizations relating to response duration or timing. The younger subjects, with one exception, showed no association between timing-related verbalizations (which were almost totally absent) and response duration differentiation. This developmental difference occurred even though the younger subjects verbalized after almost every trial. The results suggest that although 11-year-old children apparently produce rule-governed behavior under verbal control as adults do, the behavior of younger children may be controlled directly by reinforcement contingencies even when their verbal repertoires are highly developed.
4.5岁、7岁或11岁的儿童接受了一个实验环节，在该环节中，按钮按压时长被设定了一个条件。每个独立试验后都会有一个简短的口头探查，询问关于条件要求的问题。其他儿童组接受相同的任务，之后进行实验后访谈。在接受试验后口头探查的受试者中，对时长条件的适应水平往往随年龄增长而提高，但接受访谈的儿童并非如此。处于口头探查条件下的11岁儿童在准确的时间辨别与关于反应时长或时间的言语表达数量之间表现出很强的相关性。除了一个例外，较年幼的受试者在与时间相关的言语表达（几乎完全没有）和反应时长辨别之间没有关联。即使较年幼的受试者在几乎每次试验后都会说话，这种发育差异仍然存在。结果表明，尽管11岁的儿童显然像成年人一样在言语控制下产生受规则支配的行为，但较年幼儿童的行为可能即使在他们的言语技能高度发达时也直接受强化条件的控制。
