Bower Corinne, Odean Rosalie, Verdine Brian N, Medford Jelani R, Marzouk Maya, Golinkoff Roberta Michnick, Hirsh-Pasek Kathy
Temple University.
University of Delaware.
J Cogn Dev. 2020;21(3):383-405. doi: 10.1080/15248372.2020.1741363. Epub 2020 Mar 31.
Block-building skills at age 3 are related to spatial skills at age 5 and spatial skills in grade school are linked to later success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields (Wai, Lubinski, & Benbow, 2009; Wai, Lubinski, Benbow, & Steiger, 2010). Though studies have focused on block-building behaviors and design complexity, few have examined these variables in relation to future spatial and mathematical skills or have considered how children go about copying the model in detail. This study coded 3-year-olds' ( = 102) block-building behaviors and structural complexity on 3-D trials of the (TOSA; Verdine, Golinkoff, Hirsh-Pasek, & Newcombe, 2017). It explored whether individual differences in children's building behaviors and the complexity of their designs related to accuracy in copying the model block structures or their spatial and mathematical skills at ages 4 and 5. Our findings reveal that block-building behaviors were associated with concurrent and later spatial skills while structural complexity was associated with concurrent and later spatial skills as well as concurrent mathematics skills. Future work might teach children to engage in the apparently successful block-building strategies examined in this research to evaluate a potential causal mechanism.
3岁时的积木搭建技能与5岁时的空间技能相关，而小学阶段的空间技能则与日后在科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）领域的成功相关（怀、卢宾斯基和本博，2009年；怀、卢宾斯基、本博和施泰格，2010年）。尽管已有研究聚焦于积木搭建行为和设计复杂性，但很少有研究考察这些变量与未来空间和数学技能的关系，或者考虑儿童如何详细复制模型。本研究对102名3岁儿童在三维积木搭建任务（TOSA；韦尔迪内、戈林科夫、赫什-帕塞克和纽科姆，2017年）中的积木搭建行为和结构复杂性进行了编码。研究探讨了儿童搭建行为的个体差异及其设计的复杂性是否与复制模型积木结构的准确性或他们4岁和5岁时的空间和数学技能相关。我们的研究结果表明，积木搭建行为与同时期及后期的空间技能相关，而结构复杂性与同时期及后期的空间技能以及同时期的数学技能相关。未来的研究可以教导儿童采用本研究中所考察的明显成功的积木搭建策略，以评估潜在的因果机制。
