Sheehan N W, Papalia-Finlay D E, Hooper F H
Int J Aging Hum Dev. 1980;12(1):1-13. doi: 10.2190/0696-x96q-7gx9-cw2y.
In this study of people ranging from six to over sixty-five years of age, a high frequency of animistic responses was found in all ages examined. While a significant age effect was noted in the ability to categorize animate objects accurately, animistic responding was generally unrelated to logical classification ability or to analytic cognitive style. For eleven- to thirteen-year-olds, however, a significant relationship between animism and both cognitive style and classification ability existed. An interpretation of the results which found high levels of animistic thinking beyond adolescence does not support Piagetian theory. Rather, adults may respond animistically because of emotional attachments which they have formed to a certain meaningful physical objects.
在这项针对6岁至65岁以上人群的研究中，在所考察的所有年龄段都发现了较高频率的泛灵论反应。虽然在准确对有生命物体进行分类的能力方面存在显著的年龄效应，但泛灵论反应通常与逻辑分类能力或分析认知风格无关。然而，对于11至13岁的儿童，泛灵论与认知风格和分类能力之间存在显著关系。该研究结果发现青春期后仍存在高水平的泛灵论思维，这一结果的解释并不支持皮亚杰理论。相反，成年人可能由于对某些有意义的实物形成了情感依恋而做出泛灵论反应。
