Washington D S, Naremore R C
J Speech Hear Res. 1978 Mar;21(1):151-65. doi: 10.1044/jshr.2101.151.
This study evaluates children's performance on selected spatial prepositions and determines the age levels these prepositions are acquired in both receptive and expresive language, as revealed in tasks involving both two- and three-dimensional objects. Subjects were 80 children (40 males and 40 females), ranging in age from three years to four years and eleven months. All were native English speakers with no speech, hearing, or neurological disorders, and with normal intelligence. Results indicated a significant difference in test scores according to age (older children perform better than younger), task (comprehension scores higher than production scores), referent (three-dimensional tasks showing higher scores than two-dimensional tasks), and preposition. Children's use of selected spatial prepositions is dependent on the semantic complexity of the preposition. Prepositions whose meanings can be described in terms of simple topological notions are understood and used with greater facility than those involving dimensional or Euclidean spatial notions. When the prepositional variable interacts with age, dimension, task, age + dimension, age + task, dimension + task, and age + dimension + task, overall differential response are likely to occur.
本研究评估了儿童在特定空间介词方面的表现，并确定了这些介词在接受性和表达性语言中习得的年龄水平，这在涉及二维和三维物体的任务中得以体现。研究对象为80名儿童（40名男性和40名女性），年龄在3岁至4岁11个月之间。他们均为以英语为母语的儿童，没有言语、听力或神经方面的障碍，且智力正常。结果表明，根据年龄（年龄较大的儿童表现优于年龄较小的儿童）、任务（理解分数高于产出分数）、所指对象（三维任务的分数高于二维任务）和介词的不同，测试分数存在显著差异。儿童对特定空间介词的使用取决于介词的语义复杂性。其含义可用简单拓扑概念描述的介词比涉及维度或欧几里得空间概念的介词更容易被理解和使用。当介词变量与年龄、维度、任务、年龄+维度、年龄+任务、维度+任务以及年龄+维度+任务相互作用时，可能会出现总体差异反应。
