Delay-induced bias in children's memory for location

Two experiments examined how imposing a delay between learning and reproducing locations influences children's memory for location. In Experiment 1, ninety-six 7-, 9-, and 11-year-old children and adults learned the locations of 20 objects in an open, square box divided into four regions by opaque walls. During test, participants attempted to place the objects in the correct locations without the aid of the dots that had marked the locations or the boundaries that had divided the space. The test phase began either immediately following learning or following a 12-min delay. As predicted by the Category-Adjustment model, bias toward category centers increased significantly following an intervening delay. Moreover, the magnitude of categorical bias followed a systematic U-shaped developmental pattern. Results from a second study (N = 72) replicated this developmental pattern. Discussion focuses on the implications of these results for understanding how children and adults remember locations.     

Memory demands and the development of young children's memory

The primary purposes of this study were to determine the nature of and changes in early memory demands and to assess the relationship between memory demands and memory performance. 10 children at each of 2 ages--30 and 42 months--were observed in their homes for 4 2-hour sessions. Conversations between mothers and children were recorded and mother's memory-demand questions were coded for form and content from these conversations. Question form referred to whether recall or recognition was required and question content to the type of information requested--event or knowledge. Children also participated in 2 long-term memory tasks--production and verification. They were shown a dollhouse and asked to produce the names of objects that would belong in 2 rooms of the house and to verify whether particular miniature replicas of household objects belonged in the rooms. Although memory demands were frequently made, there were few changes between age 2 and 3 in the incidence or types of questions children were asked. At age 3, positive correlations were found between children's production and verification performance and content rather than form of mothers' memory-demand questions. At age 2 no overall relationships were found. Children were retested a year later on memory tasks, and for both age groups memory demands and performance were positively correlated even when initial memory-performance level was controlled. These results, along with other patterns in the data, suggested that mothers' memory demands have an impact on children's memory performance that provides at least partial support for Vygotsky's sociohistorical model of memory development.     

Precursors of mnemonic strategies in very young children's memory

In 4 studies with 18-24-month-old children, evidence was obtained of strategy-like behaviors in a memory-for-location task in which the child had to remember in what natural location a toy had been hidden. The children exhibited behaviors that resemble the mature strategies of rehearsal and monitoring, including talking about the toy or its hiding place and looking or pointing at it during the delay interval. In Experiments 1 and 2, these strategy-like behaviors were engaged in differentially as a function of familiarity, both of the setting in which the task was embedded and of the task itself. Significantly more target behaviors occurred in an unfamiliar than in a familiar setting, and more target behaviors occurred on the first than on the second day of observation. In Experiment 3, when the basic memory task was modified to remove the memory demands from the child, very few of the strategy-like behaviors occurred, indicating that they were indeed memory specific. In the fourth experiment, the rehearsal-like behaviors were shown to be related to subsequent retrieval. We interpret these results as evidence of an early natural propensity to keep alive what must be remembered, a rudimentary and imperfect version of what will later become more elaborate and planful mnemonic strategies.     

The effects of documentation on young children's memory

A central aspect of the Reggio approach to early childhood education is documentation, in which educators observe, record, and display children's work. Educational anecdotes and developmental theory suggest that documentation may facilitate children's memory; the current study explored this possibility empirically. Sixty-three preschool/kindergarten children experienced a novel learning event. Two days later, children were reminded with either documentation or worksheets of event details and the factual information that had been presented, or they were not reminded. Three weeks later, children completed a memory interview that included episodic and semantic measures. Children in the documentation and worksheet conditions remembered more factual information than those in the no-reminder condition. Children in the documentation condition produced more on-topic speech than those in the worksheet condition during reminding and a subsequent learning session. Potential benefits of documentation for classroom performance are discussed.     

Pointing at objects in other rooms: young children's sensitivity to perspective after walking with and without vision

Locomotion alters the spatial structure of an observer's perspective, that is, the network of observer to environment distances and directions. The purpose of the present 6 experiments was to investigate the sensitivity of 12-48-month-olds to changes in perspective that are occluded from view by walls and by darkness. To assess sensitivity, children were shown a target object in one room, walked into an adjacent room and asked to point in the straight-line direction at the target. In Experiment 1, 42 12-48-month-olds were tested and results indicated that children older than 36 months responded by pointing straight at the occluded target, whereas younger children tended to point in the direction of their route away from the target. In Experiments 2-4, 24- and 48-month-olds were tested and results demonstrated that 48-month-olds were sensitive to the proprioceptive and to the visual-environmental cues for the changes in perspective structure. The 24-month-olds, however, responded by pointing straight toward the target when visual-environmental cues were absent, whereas they pointed in the direction of their route when they were present. In Experiments 5 and 6 additional 24-month-olds were tested to assess the effects of short-term training and of a continuous view of the target on responding in the presence of visual-environmental cues. The results indicated relatively early sensitivity to proprioceptive cues for changes in perspective and somewhat later sensitivity to appropriate visual-environmental cues under these conditions.     

3-6岁幼儿同伴冲突的观察与分析

研究采取行为抽样法对86名3-6岁幼儿的同伴冲突行为进行了观察研究。结果表明:幼儿同伴冲突行为存在性别差异;幼儿同伴冲突在游戏活动中分布最多,其次是过渡活动和教学活动,随年龄增长,幼儿同伴冲突在过渡活动中避渐减少,在教学活动中逐渐增加;小班幼儿同伴冲突着眼于物的因素。中、大班幼儿着眼于人的因素,且在大班出现了由游戏争议引起的同伴冲突;幼儿在解决同伴冲突时最常用声明策略和直接对抗策略;幼儿同件冲突绝大多数是自行处理的,很少有教师干预。     

二维客体在视觉工作记忆中的存储单位

本实验对由不同维度(颜色和形状)的不同特征构成的客体进行探测,以正确率和反应时为指标,探索视觉工作记忆存储的基本单位是客体还是特征。实验1结果显示特征数显著影响了被试的记忆成绩。实验2结果显示客体数对被试的记忆成绩没有显著的影响。最终实验得出记忆由不同维度的特征组成的客体时,视觉工作记忆存储的基本单位是特征。     

非母语环境下儿童英语听说能力培养策略探讨

儿童英语听说能力培养,应从儿童语言习得的基本理论入手,采用TPR教学法,适当运用英文童谣、英文动画片以及英文绘本等形式,激发儿童学习兴趣培养儿童英语听说能力。     

Inner speech in young French children's reading

The role of speech and inner speech in reading is contentious and the study of inner speech in reading is fraught with methodological problems. An approach sometimes used is the ‘e-cancelling’ method, where subjects are instructed to mark all incidences of the letter ‘e’ in a text so that inferences can be made from underlining ‘e's that would be silent versus those that would be sounded in speech. However, this method does not work well in the French language and, in attempting to use letter cancelling approaches with French children aged 7–8 years, we have used other vowels as targets. In this paper we present some results about the effects on rate of reading and comprehension of various tasks intended to induce attention to the sound of parts of the text. Our conclusion, in line with that of Liva (1987) and other researchers, is that, at this early stage of reading development, reference to the sound of text does not inhibit comprehension.     

Object location memory: A direct test of the verbal memory hypothesis

Although the male advantage in traditional spatial abilities is well established, the female advantage in object location memory remains tentative. Object location memory is the only spatial ability that yields a female advantage, leading some to speculate that other factors, such as verbal memory, may solely account for the sex difference. The present experiment directly addressed the role of verbal memory using a novel object location memory task. Results suggest that the direction of the sex difference is context-specific, depending on the nature of the stimuli, and that verbal memory may account for the female bias in object location memory.     

Being a princess: young children's negotiation of femininities in a Kindergarten classroom in Indonesia

This paper attempts to explore young children’s construction of femininities in a kindergarten in Indonesia. Using a postdevelopmentalist and postcolonial approach, this paper seeks to understand how young children in the school develop, negotiate and resist existing gender construction. This paper is based on an ethnography research conducted in 2010 for eight months. Findings of this study reveal that discourse of femininities in the school is situated in the discourse of a princess. This paper argues that there are multiple meanings attached to the discourse of a princess. It does not only become a signifier for femininity, but it also acts as a signifier for social class. The findings also suggest that the discourse perpetuates the legacy of colonisation in the school. It is, then, recommended that, in order for kindergarten teachers to be able to disrupt the construction of femininities, they need to be able to understand multiple meaning of femininities as well as power relation embodied in the construction.     

A punitive environment fosters children's dishonesty: a natural experiment

The present study compared the lie-telling behavior of 3- and 4-year-old West African children (N = 84) from either a punitive or a nonpunitive school. Children were told not to peek at a toy when left alone in a room. Most children could not resist the temptation and peeked at the toy. When the experimenter asked them if they had peeked, the majority of the punitive school peekers lied about peeking at the toy while significantly fewer nonpunitive school children did so. The punitive school children were better able to maintain their deception than nonpunitive school children when answering follow-up questions. Thus, a punitive environment not only fosters increased dishonesty but also children's abilities to lie to conceal their transgressions.     

Explanation and generalization in young children's strategy learning

Children often learn new problem-solving strategies by observing examples of other people's problem-solving. When children learn a new strategy through observation and also explain the new strategy to themselves, they generalize the strategy more widely than children who learn a new strategy but do not explain. We tested three hypothesized mechanisms through which explanations might facilitate strategy generalization: more accurate recall of the new strategy's procedures; increased selection of the new strategy over competing strategies; or more effective management of the new strategy's goal structure. Findings supported the third mechanism: Explanations facilitated generalization through the creation of novel goal structures that enabled children to persist in use of the new strategy despite potential interference from competing strategies. The facilitative effect of explanation did vary with children's age and did not vary between explanations children created by themselves versus explanations they learned from the experimenter.     

Gender and sexuality in young children's perspectives of AIDS

Abstract

Responses to AIDS have often neglected children. Drawing on a qualitative study of young children aged 7–9 years, this paper draws attention to their understandings of HIV and AIDS. It is argued that young children are able to give meaning to the disease in ways that link to their social contexts, where gender inequalities and sexual violence are common. Sexuality is a key dimension through which they express knowledge of the disease. Young children do know the links between sex and AIDS, and connect vulnerability to the disease in gendered ways. To address the missing voices of young children requires coordinated efforts, requiring systemic responses which support teachers in initiatives to address taboo subjects like sexuality, as well as the pervasive poverty in which the children in our study are located.