Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA.
Department of Physical Therapy, Hunter College, City University of New York, New York, NY 10010, USA.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2022 Sep;221:105442. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2022.105442. Epub 2022 May 4.
Many everyday objects require "hidden" affordances to use as designed (e.g., twist open a water bottle). Previous work found a reliable developmental progression in children's learning of designed actions with adult objects such as containers and zippers-from non-designed exploratory actions, to the basics of the designed action, to successful implementation. Many objects designed for children (e.g., toys) also entail designed actions (e.g., interlocking bricks) but might not require a protracted period of discovery and implementation. We encouraged 12- to 60-month-old children (n = 91) and a comparative sample of 20 adults to play with six Duplo bricks to test whether the developmental progression identified for children's learning of adult objects with hidden affordances holds for a popular toy expressly designed for children. We also examined whether children's moment-to-moment behaviors with Duplo bricks inform on general processes involved in discovery and implementation of hidden affordances. With age, children progressed from non-designed exploratory actions, to attempts to interlock, to success, suggesting that the three-step developmental progression revealed with everyday adult objects broadly applies to learning hidden affordances regardless of object type. Detailing the process of learning (the type and timing of children's non-designed actions and attempts to interlock) revealed that the degree of lag between steps of the progression depends on the transparency of the required actions, the availability of perceptual feedback, and the difficulty of the perceptual-motor requirements. Findings provide insights into factors that help or hinder learning of hidden affordances.
许多日常用品在使用时都需要“隐藏的”功能（例如，拧开水瓶）。先前的研究发现，儿童在学习成人用品的设计动作时存在可靠的发展进程，这些动作包括容器和拉链等，从非设计探索动作到设计动作的基本原理，再到成功实施。许多为儿童设计的物品（例如玩具）也需要设计动作（例如，联锁砖），但可能不需要经过长时间的发现和实施。我们鼓励 12 至 60 个月大的儿童（n=91）和一组 20 名成年人用六块 Duplo 积木进行游戏，以测试儿童学习具有隐藏功能的成人用品时所确定的发展进程是否适用于专为儿童设计的流行玩具。我们还研究了儿童在玩 Duplo 积木时的即时行为是否能说明发现和实施隐藏功能所涉及的一般过程。随着年龄的增长，儿童从非设计探索动作发展到尝试联锁，再到成功，这表明，与日常成人用品相比，具有隐藏功能的三步发展进程广泛适用于学习隐藏功能，而与物体类型无关。详细描述学习过程（儿童非设计动作和尝试联锁的类型和时间）表明，进展步骤之间的滞后程度取决于所需动作的透明度、感知反馈的可用性以及感知运动要求的难度。研究结果为了解有助于或阻碍隐藏功能学习的因素提供了深入的见解。
