Department of Psychology, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521, USA.
Department of Psychology, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521, USA.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2022 Oct;222:105474. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2022.105474. Epub 2022 Jun 6.
Prior research presents a mixed picture regarding the circumstances under which children transfer learning of problem solutions from fantastical stories to real-world problems. Two experiments examined 3- to 5-year-old children's transfer of learning from fantastical storybooks that systematically varied in the fantastical abilities of storybook characters. In both experiments, participants heard stories about a character solving physical problems, and then participants attempted to solve analogous real-world problems. In Experiment 1, children heard stories that varied the fantastical abilities and practices of the protagonist; characters either did or did not have the ability to violate physical laws and did or did not use magic to help in solving a problem. Children were more likely to transfer problem solutions from the stories in which characters were presented as having the ability to violate real-world physical laws. In Experiment 2, the fantastical abilities of the characters varied by whether the characters were described as real, as pretend but living in a world where no physical laws could be violated, as pretend and living in a world where some physical laws could be violated, or as pretend and living in a world where many physical laws could be violated. Other than varying the characters' abilities, all characters used realistic solutions to solve the problem. Again, transfer was higher for children who heard about characters with the ability to violate real-world laws. The findings suggest that fantastical stories in which characters have the ability to do impossible things but use realistic solutions to problems can be effective in teaching children how to solve physical problems.
先前的研究对于儿童在何种情况下将虚构故事中的问题解决方法转移到现实世界的问题中呈现出混杂的结果。两项实验考察了 3 至 5 岁儿童从奇幻故事书中学习的迁移情况，这些故事书系统地改变了故事书中角色的奇幻能力。在这两项实验中，参与者都听到了一个角色解决物理问题的故事，然后参与者尝试解决类似的现实世界中的问题。在实验 1 中，儿童听到的故事中，主角的奇幻能力和实践各不相同；角色要么有能力违反物理定律，要么没有，要么有能力使用魔法来帮助解决问题。当角色被描述为有能力违反现实世界的物理定律时，儿童更有可能将故事中的问题解决方法转移过来。在实验 2 中，角色的奇幻能力因角色被描述为真实的、假装的但生活在一个不能违反物理定律的世界、假装的但生活在一个可以违反一些物理定律的世界还是假装的但生活在一个可以违反许多物理定律的世界而有所不同。除了改变角色的能力之外，所有角色都使用现实的解决方案来解决问题。再次，听到角色有能力违反现实世界规律的孩子的迁移率更高。这些发现表明，具有角色能够做不可能的事情但使用现实解决方案来解决问题的奇幻故事可以有效地教授儿童如何解决物理问题。
