Turan-Küçük Esra Nur, Kibbe Melissa M
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA.
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Center for Systems Neuroscience, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA.
Cognition. 2024 Mar;244:105712. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2023.105712. Epub 2023 Dec 30.
The ability to prepare for mutually exclusive possible events in the future is essential for everyday decision making. Previous studies have suggested that this ability develops between the ages of 3 and 5 years, and in young children is primarily limited by the ability to represent the set of possible outcomes of an event as "possible". We tested an alternative hypothesis that this ability may be limited by the ability to represent the set of possible actions that could be taken to prepare for those possible outcomes. We adapted the inverted y-shaped tube task of Redshaw and Suddendorf (2016), in which children are asked to catch a marble that is dropped into the top of the tube and can emerge from either the left or right branch of the tube. While 4-year-olds typically place their hands under both openings to catch the marble, preparing for both possible outcomes (optimal action), 3-year-olds often cover only one opening, preparing for only one possible outcome (suboptimal action). In three Experiments, we asked whether first showing children the set of possible actions that could be taken on the tube would enable them to recognize the optimal action that should be used to catch the marble (Experiments 1 and 3, total n = 99 US 3- and 4-year-olds) and enable them to use the optimal action themselves (Experiment 2, n = 96 US 3- and 4-year-olds). We found that 3- and 4-year-olds performed similarly when they were given the opportunity to observe the set of possible actions beforehand. These findings suggest that 3-year-olds' competence at representing mutually exclusive possibilities may be masked by their developing ability to represent and deploy plans to act on these possibilities.
为未来相互排斥的可能事件做好准备的能力对于日常决策至关重要。先前的研究表明，这种能力在3至5岁之间发展，而在幼儿中，主要受限于将事件的可能结果集表征为“可能”的能力。我们测试了另一种假设，即这种能力可能受限于表征为准备这些可能结果而可以采取的可能行动集的能力。我们改编了Redshaw和Suddendorf（2016年）的倒Y形管任务，在该任务中，要求儿童接住掉入管顶部的弹珠，弹珠可能从管的左分支或右分支出来。虽然4岁的儿童通常会将手放在两个开口下方以接住弹珠，为两种可能结果做好准备（最佳行动），但3岁的儿童通常只覆盖一个开口，只为一种可能结果做好准备（次优行动）。在三个实验中，我们询问，首先向儿童展示可以在管子上采取的可能行动集是否会使他们认识到接住弹珠应使用的最佳行动（实验1和3，共99名美国3岁和4岁儿童），并使他们自己使用最佳行动（实验2，96名美国3岁和4岁儿童）。我们发现，当3岁和4岁的儿童有机会事先观察可能行动集时，他们的表现相似。这些发现表明，3岁儿童在表征相互排斥的可能性方面的能力可能被他们正在发展的表征和部署针对这些可能性采取行动的计划的能力所掩盖。
