Liang Yibiao, Kaldy Zsuzsa, Blaser Erik
Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts Boston, 100 Morrissey Blvd., Boston, MA, 02125, USA.
Cogn Dev. 2025 Jan-Mar;73. doi: 10.1016/j.cogdev.2025.101542. Epub 2025 Jan 8.
There are concerns that reliance on external resources (e.g., information on digital devices) may be harmful to our own internal memory. Here, in a pre-registered study, we investigated how the of an external resource (i.e., whether the information will be available when needed) affects young children's use of it. In our tablet-based Shopping Game, children picked items from a store based on a shopping list. Importantly, the store and the list were not visible simultaneously, but children could toggle between them. In the condition, the list was always available. In the condition, children were led to believe that the list might disappear. We found that 5-6-year-old children ( = 37) relied more on the list - referring back to it more often and more briefly, and remembering fewer items - when they perceived the list as reliably available (and vice versa, reducing trips to the list by studying it longer, and remembering more, when it was perceived as unreliably available). Nearly all children also identified the reliable condition as easier and preferred. In short, young children not only recognize the opportunity provided by reliably available external resources, but adapt their cognitive effort accordingly.
有人担心依赖外部资源（如数字设备上的信息）可能对我们自身的内部记忆有害。在此，在一项预先注册的研究中，我们调查了外部资源的 （即信息在需要时是否可用）如何影响幼儿对其的使用。在我们基于平板电脑的购物游戏中，孩子们根据购物清单从商店中挑选商品。重要的是，商店和清单不会同时可见，但孩子们可以在它们之间切换。在 条件下，清单始终可用。在 条件下，孩子们被引导相信清单可能会消失。我们发现，5至6岁的儿童（ = 37）在认为清单可靠可用时更多地依赖清单——更频繁且更简短地参考它，记住的物品更少（反之亦然，当认为清单不可靠可用时，通过更长时间地研究它来减少查看清单的次数，并记住更多物品）。几乎所有孩子也都认为可靠条件更简单且更受青睐。简而言之，幼儿不仅认识到可靠可用的外部资源提供的机会，而且会相应地调整他们的认知努力。
原文中有几处关键信息缺失，用“ ”表示了，翻译时保留了这些缺失部分。
