Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Xiqing District, Tianjin 300387, China.
Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Xiqing District, Tianjin 300387, China.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2021 Apr;204:104943. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2020.104943. Epub 2020 Dec 21.
Children aged about 5 years can use verbal and nonverbal cues to determine social power. However, it is not clear what kinds of nonverbal cues preschoolers can use and whether they can integrate each nonverbal cue with verbal content when determining social power. Therefore, this research examined the ability of Chinese preschoolers to use and integrate visual, auditory, and verbal cues when determining social power as well as how this ability develops with age. In Study 1 (N = 478), 4- to 6-year-old Chinese children were recruited to judge the social power in visual, auditory, content, visual-auditory, visual-content, auditory-content, visual-auditory-content, and neutral cues. The results showed that 4-year-olds could not use any cues, 5-year-olds could not use content cues, and 6-year-olds could use all the cues. Children's performance improved with increasing age and the number of channels. Study 2 (N = 240) investigated whether speech tempo influences children's performance when using content cues. The results showed that 5- and 6-year-olds, but not 4-year-olds, could use content cues to determine social power under normal and slow tempos. Study 3 (N = 80) was conducted to clarify which visual cues 5- and 6-year-olds can use and the age difference. The results revealed that 5- and 6-year-olds could use head, eye, posture, and mixed cues to determine social power, whereas their performance was steady for both 5- and 6-year-olds. In sum, the results show that Chinese children aged about 5 years are already able to use and integrate visual, auditory, and content cues when determining social power. Moreover, the ability to determine social power is gradually improved with age during the preschool period.
儿童大约 5 岁时就能使用言语和非言语线索来判断社会权力。然而，目前尚不清楚学龄前儿童可以使用哪些非言语线索，以及他们在确定社会权力时是否可以将每种非言语线索与言语内容结合起来。因此，本研究考察了中国学龄前儿童在确定社会权力时使用和整合视觉、听觉和言语线索的能力，以及这种能力如何随年龄发展。在研究 1（N=478）中，我们招募了 4 至 6 岁的中国儿童，让他们判断视觉、听觉、内容、视听、视-内、听-内、视听-内和中性线索的社会权力。结果表明，4 岁儿童不能使用任何线索，5 岁儿童不能使用内容线索，6 岁儿童可以使用所有线索。儿童的表现随年龄和通道数量的增加而提高。研究 2（N=240）考察了语速是否会影响儿童在使用内容线索时的表现。结果表明，只有 5 岁和 6 岁儿童，而不是 4 岁儿童，在正常和慢语速下可以使用内容线索来确定社会权力。研究 3（N=80）旨在澄清 5 岁和 6 岁儿童可以使用哪些视觉线索，以及年龄差异。结果表明，5 岁和 6 岁儿童可以使用头部、眼睛、姿势和混合线索来确定社会权力，而他们的表现对 5 岁和 6 岁儿童都是稳定的。总之，研究结果表明，中国大约 5 岁的儿童已经能够在确定社会权力时使用和整合视觉、听觉和内容线索。此外，在学龄前阶段，随着年龄的增长，确定社会权力的能力逐渐提高。
