Springer K, Keil F C
Cornell University, Department of Psychology, Ithaca, NY 14853.
Child Dev. 1989 Jun;60(3):637-48.
5 experiments investigated children's intuitions about genetic transmission of features. After parent animals possessing an abnormal feature were described, children were asked whether their baby would be born with that feature in abnormal or normal form. Features were either internal or external, inborn or acquired after birth, and had functional or nonfunctional consequences for the parents. Among preschoolers, features with functional consequences were considered inherited much more frequently than any other type, but only when the functional consequences were biological rather than social or psychological. Older children demonstrated more awareness of the inheritance of inborn traits. Overall, the results suggest young children have principled, specifically biological notions of inheritance.
5项实验研究了儿童对特征遗传传递的直觉。在描述了具有异常特征的亲代动物后，询问儿童它们的幼崽出生时该特征是异常形式还是正常形式。特征分为内部或外部、先天或出生后获得，并且对亲代有功能性或无功能性影响。在学龄前儿童中，具有功能性影响的特征比其他任何类型的特征被认为更常是可遗传的，但前提是功能性影响是生物学方面的，而非社会或心理方面的。年龄较大的儿童对先天特征的遗传表现出更多认识。总体而言，结果表明幼儿具有有原则的、特别是关于生物学的遗传观念。
