Quinn Paul C, Polly Jennifer L, Furer Michael J, Dobson Veima, Narter Dana B
Department of Psychology Washington & Jefferson College.
Department of Psychology University of Arizona.
Infancy. 2002 Jul;3(3):323-347. doi: 10.1207/S15327078IN0303_3. Epub 2002 Jul 1.
Five experiments were conducted to examine the performance of young infants on above versus below categorization tasks. Experiments 1 and 2 showed that infants did not form abstract categorical representations for above and below when familiarized with different objects depicted in a constant spatial relation relative to a horizontal bar and tested on a novel object depicted in the familiar and novel spatial relation. Experiments 3 through 5 examined perceptual-attentional distraction versus conceptually based generalization explanations for young infant performance in the object-variation version of the above-below categorization task. Experiments 3 and 4 demonstrated that infants still did not form abstract categorical representations for above and below when object variation was removed from the familiarization trials or when object novelty was reduced during the preference test trials. However, Experiment 5 showed that 3- and 4-month-olds succeeded on the above versus below categorization task when familiarized with object variation and preference tested with a familiar versus novel object-bar relation. These results indicate that young infants can form categorical representations for above and below in the object-variation version of the above-below categorization task, but that such representations are specific to the particular objects presented. Young infant performance in the object-variation version of the above-below categorization task thus reflects a conceptually based generalization limit rather than a problem of perceptual-attentional distraction.
进行了五项实验来检验幼儿在上下分类任务中的表现。实验1和实验2表明，当幼儿熟悉相对于水平杆以恒定空间关系描绘的不同物体，并在以熟悉和新颖空间关系描绘的新物体上进行测试时，他们没有形成关于“上”和“下”的抽象类别表征。实验3至实验5考察了在上下分类任务的物体变化版本中，幼儿表现的知觉-注意力分散与基于概念的泛化解释。实验3和实验4表明，当从熟悉试验中去除物体变化或在偏好测试试验中降低物体新颖性时，幼儿仍然没有形成关于“上”和“下”的抽象类别表征。然而，实验5表明，3个月和4个月大的婴儿在熟悉物体变化并以熟悉与新颖的物体-杆关系进行偏好测试时，在上下分类任务中取得了成功。这些结果表明，幼儿可以在上下分类任务的物体变化版本中形成关于“上”和“下”的类别表征，但这种表征特定于所呈现的特定物体。因此，幼儿在上下分类任务的物体变化版本中的表现反映了基于概念的泛化限制，而不是知觉-注意力分散问题。
