Powell Lindsey J, Carey Susan
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, United States; Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States.
Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States.
Cognition. 2017 Jul;164:150-162. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2017.03.022. Epub 2017 Apr 18.
The current studies provide an experimental, rather than correlational, method for testing hypotheses about the role of executive function (EF) in conceptual development. Previous research has established that adults' tendency to deploy EF can be temporarily diminished by use. Exercising self-control in one context decreases adults' performance on other EF demanding tasks immediately thereafter. Using two different depletion methods, Experiments 1 and 3 extend this finding to preschool-aged children. Experiments 2 and 4 make use of these EF depletion methods to elucidate the role of EF in children's theory of mind reasoning. Experiment 2 shows that EF depletion affects 5-year-olds' ability to predict another's behavior on the basis of that person's false belief, and Experiment 4 shows that this negative effect of depletion extends to 4- and 5-year-olds' ability to explain others' behavior on the basis of their false beliefs. These findings provide direct evidence that EF is required for the expression of an understanding of others' false beliefs across a variety of task demands, even in children who clearly have the capacity to construct such representations. We suggest ways in which depletion may be used as a tool for further investigating the role of executive function in cognitive development.
当前的研究提供了一种实验性而非相关性的方法，用于检验关于执行功能（EF）在概念发展中作用的假设。先前的研究已经证实，成年人运用执行功能的倾向会因使用而暂时减弱。在一种情境中进行自我控制会降低成年人随后在其他需要执行功能的任务上的表现。实验1和实验3使用两种不同的损耗方法，将这一发现扩展到了学龄前儿童。实验2和实验4利用这些执行功能损耗方法来阐明执行功能在儿童心理理论推理中的作用。实验2表明，执行功能损耗会影响5岁儿童基于他人错误信念预测其行为的能力，实验4表明，这种损耗的负面影响扩展到了4岁和5岁儿童基于他人错误信念解释其行为的能力。这些发现提供了直接证据，表明即使在明显有能力构建此类表征的儿童中，在各种任务要求下表达对他人错误信念的理解也需要执行功能。我们提出了一些方法，说明损耗可如何用作进一步研究执行功能在认知发展中作用的工具。
