Stevenson H W, Stigler J W, Lee S Y, Lucker G W, Kitamura S, Hsu C C
Child Dev. 1985 Jun;56(3):718-34.
Chinese, Japanese, and American children at grades 1 and 5 were given a battery of 10 cognitive tasks and tests of achievement in reading and mathematics. Samples consisted of 240 children in each grade in each culture. 2 major purposes of the study were to determine possible differences in cognitive abilities of Japanese, Chinese, and American children and to investigate the possible differential relation of scores on cognitive tasks to reading by children of the 3 cultures. Similarity was found among children of the 3 cultures in level, variability, and structure of cognitive abilities. Chinese children surpassed Japanese and American children in reading scores; both Chinese and Japanese children obtained higher scores in mathematics than the American children. Prediction of achievement scores from the cognitive tasks showed few differential effects among children of the 3 cultures. The results suggest that the high achievement of Chinese and Japanese children cannot be attributed to higher intellectual abilities, but must be related to their experiences at home and at school.
对一年级和五年级的中国、日本和美国儿童进行了一系列包含10项认知任务的测试以及阅读和数学成绩测试。每种文化背景下各年级的样本均为240名儿童。该研究的两个主要目的是确定日本、中国和美国儿童在认知能力上可能存在的差异，并调查这三种文化背景下儿童在认知任务上的得分与阅读之间可能存在的差异关系。研究发现，这三种文化背景下的儿童在认知能力的水平、变异性和结构方面存在相似性。中国儿童的阅读成绩超过了日本和美国儿童；中国和日本儿童的数学成绩均高于美国儿童。根据认知任务对成绩得分进行的预测表明，这三种文化背景下的儿童之间几乎没有差异效应。结果表明，中国和日本儿童的高成就并非归因于更高的智力能力，而必定与他们在家中和学校的经历有关。
