Simons D J, Keil F C
Department of Psychology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
Cognition. 1995 Aug;56(2):129-63. doi: 10.1016/0010-0277(94)00660-d.
For more than a century, theorists of cognitive development have embraced some form of the thesis that cognitive development proceeds from concrete to abstract knowledge. In contrast to this view, we suggest an abstract to concrete shift in the development of biological thought. In five studies we examine children's expectations for what could be inside animals and machines and we find that children of all ages respond systematically, revealing abstract expectations for how the insides of animals and machines should differ. By 8 years, children seem to have more concrete expectations for the nature of insides, and are substantially more accurate than preschoolers. More broadly, we suspect that an abstract to concrete progression may capture important features of how knowledge develops in the realm of biological thought and in many other areas of understanding as well.
一个多世纪以来，认知发展理论家一直秉持某种形式的观点，即认知发展是从具体知识向抽象知识推进的。与这种观点相反，我们提出生物思维发展是从抽象到具体的转变。在五项研究中，我们考察了儿童对动物和机器内部可能存在之物的预期，发现各年龄段的儿童都有系统的反应，这表明他们对动物和机器内部应如何不同有着抽象的预期。到8岁时，儿童似乎对内部本质有了更具体的预期，并且比学龄前儿童准确得多。更广泛地说，我们怀疑从抽象到具体的发展过程可能抓住了生物思维领域以及许多其他理解领域中知识发展的重要特征。
