Colorful successPreschoolers’ use of perceptual color cues to solve a spatial reasoning problemWord文档格式.docx

Colorful successPreschoolers’ use of perceptual color cues to solve a spatial reasoning problemWord文档格式.docx

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Slemner,2003;

vonHofsten,1980）.Spatialreasoningskillscontinuetodevelopover

Correspondingauthor.Fax:

+19196605726.

E-mailaddress:

amysjoh@（A.S.Joh）.

0022-0965/$-seefrontmatter©

2012ElsevierInc.Allrightsreserved.http:

//dx.doi.org/!

0.1016/j.jecp.2012.06.012

LeighA.Spivey

DepartmentofPsychologyandNeuroscience,DukeUniversity,Durham,NC27708,USA

ARTICLEINFO

ABSTRACT

Articlehistory:

Received7February2012

Revised21June2012

Availableonline9August2012

Keywords:

Spatialreasoning

Perceptualcues

Problem-solvingskills

Strategyacquisitionandgeneralization

Limitationsofcueuse

Gravitybiaserrors

Spatialreasoning,acrucialskillforeverydayactions,developsgraduallyduringthefirstseveralyearsofchildhood.Previousstudieshaveshownthatperceptualinformationandproblemsolvingstrategiesarecriticalforsuccessfulspatialreasoninginyoungchildren.Here,wesoughttolinkthesetwofactorsbyexaminingchildren^useofperceptualcolorcuesandwhethertheiruseofsuchcueswouldleadtotheacquisitionofageneralproblemsolvingstrategy.Forty-eight3-year-oldswereaskedtopredictthetrajectoryofaballdroppedintooneofthreeintertwinedtubes.Childrenwhoreceivedadditionalperceptualcuesintheformofdistinctlycoloredtubessucceededtwiceasoftenasthosewhodidnotreceivethecues.Athirdgroupofchildrenwhoreceivedtheadditionalcuesononlythefirsthalfofthetesttrialssucceededwhilethecueswerepresentbutrevertedtomakingerrorsoncetheywereremoved.Thesefindingsdemonstratethatperceptualcolorcuesprovidepreschoolerswithanswerstospatialreasoningproblemsbutmightnotteachchildrenageneralstrategyforsolvingtheproblem.

©

2012ElsevierInc.Allrightsreserved.thenextseveralyears,withchildrenmakingincreasinglyaccuratepredictionsaboutthetrajectoryofmovingobjects（Hood,1995）.

ThedevelopmentofspatialcognitioninpreschoolershasbeenstudiedextensivelyusingamanualsearchtaskdesignedbyHood（1995）.AsshowninFig.1,aballisdroppeddownoneofthreeintertwinedtubesandchildrenareaskedtodeterminewhereitwillemerge.Thecorrectanswercanbederivedbysimplyfollowingthepathofthetubeintowhichtheballwasdropped.However,untilapproximately4yearsofage,childrenexpecttheballtofallstraightdowneventhoughthearrangementofthetubesprecludessuchpossibilities.Youngerpreschoolerscontinuetomakethiserrorevenafterextensivetrainingandexperiencewiththeproblem.Hooddescribedthisbehaviorastheproductofagravitybias;

whenfacedwithadifficultproblem,childrenresorttoadefaultassumptionthatobjectswillfallverticallyduetotheeffectsofgravity.Indeed,thepullofthegravitybiasissostrongthatevenolderchildrenareunabletoinhibittheirprepotent,gravity-drivenresponsesiftheirattentionistaxed（Hood,Wilson,&

Dyson,2006）,andnonhumanprimatesanddogsmakesimilarmistakes（Hauser,Williams,Kralik,&

Moskovitz,2001;

Hood,Hauser,Anderson,&

Santos,1999;

Osthaus,Slater,&

Lea,2003;

Tomonaga,Imura,Mizuno,&

Tanaka,2007）.Youngerpreschoolersavoidsucherrorsiftheyarefreedfromgravity-relatedconstraintsbysolvingtheproblemwithhorizontallyorientedtubesorreasoningaboutanupward-movingball（Hood,1998;

Hood,Santos,&

Fieselman,2000）,providingadditionalevidencethatchildren'

sdifficultieswiththisspatialreasoningproblemstemfromagravitybias.

Recentstudieshaveinvestigatedtheconditionsunderwhichchildreninhibittheirgravity-drivenresponses.Thefindingssuggestthatperceptualinformationandproblemsolvingstrategiesplayimportantrolesinthedevelopmentofspatialcognition.Forexample,BascandzievandHarris（2011）presented3-year-oldswithadditionalvisualinformationaboutthetubemechanismbyremovingthe"

chimneys"

（showninFig.1asthegraypiecesconnectingthetubestotheframe）fromtheapparatusanddroppingtheballdirectlyintoanuncoveredtube.Thissubtlemodificationimprovedchildren'

sperformancesignificantly—somuchsothatitallowedthemtomakecorrectpredictionsevenafterthechimneyswerereintroducedinlatertrials.Ratherthanincreasingtheavailabilityof

Fig.1.Threeplastictubeswerefittedintothetopan