Laboratory Psychology of Perception, CNRS UMR 8242 - Université Paris Descartes Paris, France.
Front Psychol. 2014 May 23;5:491. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00491. eCollection 2014.
We describe the results of a longitudinal study on five infants from age 12 to 20 months, presented with an out of reach toy and a rake-like tool within reach. Five conditions of spatial relationship between toy and rake were tested. Outcomes and types of behavior were analyzed. There were successes observed around 12 months in the condition of spatial contiguity between rake and toy, but these could not be interpreted as corresponding to full understanding of the use of the rake. At this age and for the following months, in the conditions involving spatial separation between rake and toy, infants' strategies fluctuated between paying attention to the toy only, exploring the rake for its own sake, and connecting rake and toy but with no apparent attempt to bring the toy closer. Only between 16 and 20 months did infants fairly suddenly start to intentionally try to bring the toy closer with the tool: at this stage the infants also became able to learn from their failures and to correct their actions, as well as to benefit from demonstration from an adult. We examine the individual differences in the pattern of change in behaviors leading to tool use in the five infants, and find no increase in any one type of behavior that systematically precedes success. We conclude that sudden success at 18 months probably corresponds to the coming together of a variety of capacities.
我们描述了一项对五个婴儿进行的纵向研究的结果，这些婴儿的年龄在 12 到 20 个月之间，在伸手可及的范围内有一个玩具，在够不着的范围内有一个耙状工具。我们测试了玩具和耙子之间五种空间关系条件。分析了结果和行为类型。在耙子和玩具空间相邻的条件下，12 个月左右观察到了一些成功，但这些并不能解释为对耙子使用的充分理解。在这个年龄和随后的几个月里，在耙子和玩具之间存在空间分离的条件下，婴儿的策略在只关注玩具、为了耙子本身而探索耙子以及连接耙子和玩具但没有明显试图将玩具拉近之间波动。只有在 16 到 20 个月之间，婴儿才会突然开始有意地用工具将玩具拉近：在这个阶段，婴儿也能够从失败中吸取教训并纠正自己的行为，还能够从成人的示范中受益。我们检查了五个婴儿在通向使用工具的行为模式变化中的个体差异，没有发现任何一种行为类型有系统地先于成功而增加。我们得出结论，18 个月时的突然成功可能对应于各种能力的结合。
