Huttenlocher J, Jordan N C, Levine S C
Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Illinois 60637.
J Exp Psychol Gen. 1994 Sep;123(3):284-96. doi: 10.1037//0096-3445.123.3.284.
The authors examined young children's ability to solve nonverbal calculation problems in which they must determine how many items are in a hidden array after items have been added into or taken away from it. Earlier work showed that an ability to reliably solve such problems emerges earlier than verbal calculation ability but did not examine when it first appears. The authors propose that the ability to solve such problems involves domain-general symbolic processes similar to those involved in symbolic play and the use of physical models. Hence the ability to calculate should appear at about 2 years and should be related to overall level of intellectual competence. The authors show that the ability to reliably solve nonverbal calculation tasks emerges only after 2 years of age and that performance on nonverbal calculation problems is highly related to overall level of intellectual competence in children between 3 and 4 years of age.
作者们研究了幼儿解决非语言计算问题的能力，在这类问题中，他们必须在物品被添加到一个隐藏数组中或从其中拿走之后，确定该隐藏数组中有多少物品。早期的研究表明，可靠解决此类问题的能力比语言计算能力出现得更早，但并未考察它首次出现的时间。作者们提出，解决此类问题的能力涉及与象征性游戏和使用物理模型中所涉及的类似的领域通用的符号过程。因此，计算能力应该在大约2岁时出现，并且应该与智力能力的总体水平相关。作者们表明，可靠解决非语言计算任务的能力直到2岁之后才出现，并且在3至4岁儿童中，非语言计算问题的表现与智力能力的总体水平高度相关。
