Miller J L, Bartsch K
Department of Psychology, University of Wyoming, Laramie 82071, USA.
Dev Psychol. 1997 Jan;33(1):156-64. doi: 10.1037//0012-1649.33.1.156.
Whether and how an understanding of biological explantation changes with development was explored in interviews with 24-first graders, 24 third graders, and 24 adults. Participants were asked about the changeability of biological and psychological characteristics and the causal mechanisms underlying biological, psychological, and mechanical phenomena (using both open-ended and forced-choice questions). In saying how characteristics might be changed, children and adults similarly distinguished between biology and psychology; they also responded similarly to questions about specific processes underlying biological change. Children's attributions of intention or agency to biological organs or body parts (i.e., vitalistic attribution) did not differ from adults', contrary to previous findings. The authors concluded that children's thinking about biology is not necessarily more vitalistic than adults'.
通过对24名一年级学生、24名三年级学生和24名成年人进行访谈，探讨了对生物解释的理解是否以及如何随着发育而变化。参与者被问及生物和心理特征的可变性以及生物、心理和机械现象背后的因果机制（使用开放式和多项选择题）。在说明特征可能如何变化时，儿童和成年人同样区分了生物学和心理学；他们对关于生物变化背后具体过程的问题的回答也相似。与之前的研究结果相反，儿童对生物器官或身体部位的意图或能动性的归因（即活力论归因）与成年人没有差异。作者得出结论，儿童对生物学的思考不一定比成年人更具活力论色彩。
