Gelman S A, Ebeling K S
Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 48109-1109, USA.
Cognition. 1998 May;66(2):B35-B47. doi: 10.1016/s0010-0277(98)00022-5.
Why are ontological distinctions commonly ignored in ordinary language use? For example, why is a toy bear called a 'bear'? Jones and Smith argue that shape is central to the semantic representations of both children and adults (Jones, S.S., Smith, L.B., 1993. The place of perception in children's concepts. Cognitive Development 8, 113-139). In contrast, Soja et al. suggest that children do not rely on shape per se, but rather name representations, which are often indexed by shape (Soja, N.N., Carey, S., Spelke, E.S. 1992. Perception, ontology, and word meaning. Cognition 45, 101-107). Two studies were designed to test the latter hypothesis. Forty-seven children (2 years 5 months-3 years 11 months) and 32 adults participated. Each saw a series of line-drawings roughly shaped like various namable objects (e.g. a man). For half the participants, each line-drawing was described as depicting a shape that was created intentionally (e.g. someone painted a picture). For the remaining participants, each drawing was described as depicting a shape that was created accidentally (e.g. someone spilled some paint). Participants were simply asked to name each picture. We hypothesized that subjects would use shape as the basis of naming primarily when the shapes were intentional (and thus plausibly representations). The findings supported the predictions, for both children and adults. These results suggest that, although shape does play an important role in children's early naming, other factors are also important, including the mental state of the picture's creator (intentional vs. not). Thus, the data suggest that from an early age, children's picture naming incorporates their theory of mind.
为什么本体论上的区别在日常语言使用中通常被忽视？例如，为什么玩具熊被称为“熊”？琼斯和史密斯认为形状对于儿童和成人的语义表征都至关重要（琼斯，S.S.，史密斯，L.B.，1993年。感知在儿童概念中的地位。《认知发展》第8卷，第113 - 139页）。相比之下，索亚等人认为儿童并非仅仅依赖形状本身，而是依赖名称表征，这些表征通常由形状来索引（索亚，N.N.，凯里，S.，斯佩尔克，E.S. 1992年。感知、本体论和词义。《认知》第45卷，第101 - 107页）。设计了两项研究来检验后一种假设。47名儿童（2岁5个月至3岁11个月）和32名成年人参与了研究。每个人都看到一系列大致形状像各种可命名物体（如一个人）的线条画。对于一半的参与者，每幅线条画被描述为描绘了一个有意创造的形状（例如有人画了一幅画）。对于其余参与者，每幅画被描述为描绘了一个偶然创造的形状（例如有人洒了一些颜料）。参与者只是被要求给每幅图片命名。我们假设，当形状是有意的时候（因此可能是表征），主体会主要将形状作为命名的基础。研究结果支持了这一预测，无论是儿童还是成年人。这些结果表明，虽然形状在儿童早期命名中确实起着重要作用，但其他因素也很重要，包括图片创作者的心理状态（有意与否）。因此，数据表明儿童从很小的时候起，他们的图片命名就融入了他们的心理理论。
