Behne Tanya, Carpenter Malinda, Tomasello Michael
Department of Developmental Psychology.
Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
Dev Psychol. 2014 Aug;50(8):2049-60. doi: 10.1037/a0037224. Epub 2014 Jun 30.
Much is known about young children's use of deictic gestures such as pointing. Much less is known about their use of other types of communicative gestures, especially iconic or symbolic gestures. In particular, it is unknown whether children can create iconic gestures on the spot to inform others. Study 1 provided 27-month-olds with the opportunity to inform a novice how to perform a task. The majority of children created appropriate iconic gestures, and they did so significantly more than in a control condition in which the need to inform someone was removed. In Study 2, some of the 21-month-olds tested also created novel iconic gestures but to a lesser extent. Results are discussed in relation to children's symbolic, linguistic, and social-cognitive development.
我们对幼儿使用指示性手势（如指指点点）的情况了解很多。但对于他们使用其他类型的交流手势，尤其是象形或象征性手势的情况，了解则少得多。特别是，尚不清楚儿童是否能够当场创造象形手势来告知他人。研究1为27个月大的幼儿提供了向新手告知如何执行一项任务的机会。大多数儿童创造了恰当的象形手势，而且他们这样做的频率明显高于一个去除了告知他人需求的控制条件。在研究2中，接受测试的一些21个月大的幼儿也创造了新颖的象形手势，但程度较低。我们结合儿童的符号、语言和社会认知发展对研究结果进行了讨论。
