Kobayashi H
Kyoritsu Women's University, Yokohama, Japan.
Cognition. 1997 Jun;63(3):251-69. doi: 10.1016/s0010-0277(97)00007-3.
This study examined whether 2 year-old children attend to the relevant properties (shape or material) of solid objects in making inferences when adults demonstrate appropriate actions. In Experiment 1, the experimenter presented 24 Japanese 2 year-olds a nonsense label with an unfamiliar target solid object that was either rigid (e.g., steel) or flexible (e.g., sponge). The experimenter performed an action on the object that emphasized the shape (e.g., rolling) or the material (e.g., squeezing) of these targets. The experimenter then asked these children, given the same label, to chose an object that matched the target in shape or in material. In Experiment 2, the experimenter asked thirty-two Japanese 2 year-olds to choose an object with and without nonsense labels. The results showed that the children used action information to make their choices regardless of the presence of labels. As hypothesized, an adults's action information alone can direct children to attend to relevant object properties in making inferences about solid objects.
本研究考察了在成人展示适当动作时，2岁儿童在进行推理时是否会关注固体物体的相关属性（形状或材质）。在实验1中，实验者向24名日本2岁儿童展示了一个带有陌生目标固体物体的无意义标签，该物体要么是刚性的（如钢铁），要么是柔性的（如海绵）。实验者对物体执行了一个强调这些目标形状（如滚动）或材质（如挤压）的动作。然后，实验者要求这些儿童在给定相同标签的情况下，选择一个在形状或材质上与目标匹配的物体。在实验2中，实验者要求32名日本2岁儿童在有和没有无意义标签的情况下选择物体。结果表明，无论是否有标签，儿童都会利用动作信息来做出选择。正如所假设的，仅成人的动作信息就能引导儿童在对固体物体进行推理时关注相关物体属性。
