ABSTRACT

During the preschool years, children are simultaneously undergoing a reshaping of their mental number line and becoming increasingly sensitive to the social norms expressed by those around them. In the current study, 4- and 5-year-old American and Israeli children were given a task in which an experimenter laid out chips with numbers (1–5), letters (A-E), or colors (Red-Blue, the first colors of the rainbow), and presented them with a specific order (initial through final) and direction (Left-to-right or Right-to-left). The experimenter either did not demonstrate the laying out of the chips (Control), emphasized the process of the left-to-right or right-to-left spatial layout (Process), or used general goal language (Generic). Children were then asked to recreate each sequence after a short delay. Children also completed a short numeracy task. The results indicate that attention to the spatial structuring of the environment was influenced by conventional framing; children exhibited better recall when the manner of layout was emphasized than when it was not. Both American and Israeli children were better able to recall numerical information relative to non-numerical information. Although children did not show an overall benefit for better recall of information related to the culture’s dominant spatial direction, American children’s tendency to recall numerical direction information predicted their early numeracy ability.

摘要

在学龄前阶段，孩子们同时经历着心理数字线的重塑，对周围人表达的社会规范越来越敏感。在当前的研究中，4 岁和 5 岁的美国和以色列儿童被分配了一项任务，实验者在其中布置带有数字 (1–5)、字母 (AE) 或颜色（红-蓝，第一个彩虹的颜色），并以特定的顺序（从头到尾）和方向（从左到右或从右到左）呈现它们。实验者要么没有演示芯片的布局（Control），要么强调从左到右或从右到左的空间布局过程（Process），要么使用通用目标语言（Generic）。然后要求孩子们在短暂的延迟后重新创建每个序列。孩子们还完成了一项简短的算术任务。结果表明，对环境空间结构的关注受到传统框架的影响；当布局的方式被强调时，儿童比没有强调时表现出更好的回忆。相对于非数字信息，美国和以色列儿童都能够更好地回忆起数字信息。尽管儿童在更好地回忆起与文化主导空间方向相关的信息方面并没有显示出整体益处，但美国儿童回忆数字方向信息的倾向预示着他们早期的计算能力。相对于非数字信息，美国和以色列儿童都能够更好地回忆起数字信息。尽管儿童在更好地回忆起与文化主导空间方向相关的信息方面并没有显示出整体益处，但美国儿童回忆数字方向信息的倾向预示着他们早期的计算能力。相对于非数字信息，美国和以色列儿童都能够更好地回忆起数字信息。尽管儿童在更好地回忆起与文化主导空间方向相关的信息方面并没有显示出整体益处，但美国儿童回忆数字方向信息的倾向预示着他们早期的计算能力。