不同语言能力幼儿在三种错误信念任务中的表现

本研究采用了实验的方法,以言语、非言语性任务,意外转移与表征变化任务为变量,考察了不同语言能力的88名3-4岁幼儿的错误信念理解能力。研究结果发现,降低错误信念任务对语言能力的要求并不能改变幼儿在错误信念理解上的年龄特征;在3岁和4岁两个年龄组中,语言能力超常的幼儿在各项实验任务上的表现均好于语言能力一般的幼儿。     

3～5岁藏族儿童心理理论能力的发展

本研究以58名3～5岁藏族在园幼儿为实验对象,试图探究藏族儿童心理理论能力发展的一般变化趋势,结果表明藏族儿童心理理论的获得和年龄发展趋势与国内外有关儿童心理理论发展的结论有着跨文化的一致性,但也存在重要差异。藏族儿童在5．5岁时才基本形成错误信念理解能力,较国内外其他儿童晚一到半岁;3岁以后能理解外表与事实的区别;4岁以后能同时理解自己和他人的信念;5．5岁掌握他人行为预测任务。藏族儿童的错误信念理解不存在显著的性别差异。     

农村留守儿童二级错误信念发展与同伴接纳的关系

农村留守儿童由于其不能在父母陪伴下成长,成为了一个特殊的群体,因此有必要对他们进行二级错误信念发展与同伴接纳的关系的研究。研究发现,8—10岁农村留守儿童的二级错误信念理解能力存在着年龄差异,呈增长趋势;不同同伴接纳类型的农村留守儿童,二级错误信念理解能力的发展水平呈显著差异,受欢迎儿童二级错误信念理解能力强;农村留守儿童的二级错误信念理解能力可以显著地预测他们的社会选择力。     

孤儿错误信念认知与情绪理解发展及教育对策

研究用2个心理理论范式测量错误信念认知和情绪理解能力,比较33名孤儿和33名非孤儿的表现,并分析了错误信念认知和情绪理解的关系。结果显示:(1)孤儿错误信念认知水平发展趋势与非孤儿一致,但孤儿的错误信念认知能力发展显著低于非孤儿;(2)孤儿的情绪理解发展趋势和水平与非孤儿基本一致;(3)儿童(包括孤儿)错误信念认知和情绪理解在3-5岁期间发生明显变化,大多数儿童在5岁时已基本具备错误信念认知和情绪理解的能力,4岁是儿童错误信念认知和情绪理解能力发展的重要年龄;(4)儿童错误信念认知与情绪理解关系密切。     

3-5岁幼儿基于愿望—信念的情绪理解研究

用设置故事情境的方法研究了99名3-5岁幼儿对基于愿望—信念的情绪理解能力。结果表明,在愿望—信念情绪理解任务中存在显著的年龄差异,年龄越大,理解能力越好,但不存在性别差异;3-5岁幼儿对基于信念的情绪理解要晚于基于愿望的情绪理解的发展。     

3-5岁幼儿基于愿望—信念的情绪理解研究

用设置故事情境的方法研究了99名3-5岁幼儿对基于愿望—信念的情绪理解能力。结果表明,在愿望—信念情绪理解任务中存在显著的年龄差异,年龄越大,理解能力越好,但不存在性别差异;3-5岁幼儿对基于信念的情绪理解要晚于基于愿望的情绪理解的发展。     

3～5岁幼儿心理理论发展的任务特性实验研究

以3—5岁幼儿为被试,采用自然实验法探讨幼儿心理理论能力的任务特性问题。研究的结果再次支持3—5岁为幼儿心理理论发展的关键时期这一论点,并发现对于事实真相的双重抑制比传统的错误信念任务需要更多的认知加工,任务难度也随之显著提高。还讨论了心理理论各项任务之间既存在显著的一致性、又具有一定的特异性方面的问题。     

3-5岁幼儿的认知模仿与动作模仿

研究采用实验法,以183名3-5岁幼儿为研究对象,探讨学前阶段儿童认知模仿和空间动作模仿的年龄差异.结果表明:动作模仿没有显著的年龄差异; 认知模仿有显著的年龄差异,具体表现为3岁幼儿的认知模仿成绩明显低于4岁组和5岁组幼儿,后两组幼儿之间没有显著差异.3岁半左右是学前儿童认知模仿能力发展的关键时期,成人应通过提供丰富多样的认知规则刺激、降低认知信息的编码难度等方法促进幼儿认知模仿能力的发展.     

幼儿心理理论发展与师生关系和同伴交往能力:一项纵向研究

采用纵向设计通过三次施测考察了3～5岁儿童心理理论发展与师生关系和同伴交往能力的关系。结果发现,(1)年龄、语言、第一次施测的一级错误信念理解分数,以及同伴交往能力中的语言和非语言交往可以显著预测第二次施测的一级错误信念理解成绩。(2)年龄和师生关系中的冲突感得分可以显著预测第二次施测的二级错误信念理解成绩。表明年龄是儿童心理理论发展的一个主要预测源。同伴交往能力与一级错误信念理解的发展存在密切关系,而较为复杂的二级错误信念理解与师生关系中的冲突感存在密切关系。     

4-6岁幼儿自我概念发展特点研究

本研究以4岁-6岁幼儿为被试,使用《幼儿自我概念调查量表》考查了120名幼儿的自我概念发展特点。结果表明,不同年龄幼儿在自我概念发展上存在显著差异,4岁组幼儿自我概念认知得分显著低于5岁组与6岁组幼儿,5岁组幼儿与6岁组幼儿之间无显著差异。同年龄组的男孩与女孩相比,在母亲接纳、身体能力和认知能力得分上无显著差异,但在同伴接纳维度上女孩显著高于男孩。     

The impact of sign language on the cognitive development of deaf children: the case of theories of mind

The ability to attribute false beliefs (i.e., demonstrate theory of mind) by 155 deaf children between 5 and 8 years of age was compared to that of 39 hearing children ages 4 to 6. The hypotheses under investigation were (1) that linguistic features of sign language could promote the development of theories of mind and (2) that early exposure to language would allow an easier access to these theories. Deaf children were grouped according to their communication mode and the hearing status of their parents. The results obtained in three false belief tasks supported the hypotheses: effective representational abilities were demonstrated by deaf children of deaf parents, whereas those born to hearing parents appeared delayed in that regard, with differences according to their communication mode.     

Language facility and theory of mind development in deaf children

Deaf children with signing parents, nonnative signing deaf children, children from a hearing impaired unit (HIU), and oral deaf children were tested on three first-order theory of mind (ToM) tasks--a subset was also given a second-order task (Perner & Wimmer, 1985). A British Sign Language (BSL) receptive language task (Herman, Holmes, & Woll, 1999) and four nonverbal executive function tasks were also administered. The new BSL task allowed, for the first time, the receptive language abilities of deaf children to be measured alongside ToM abilities. Hearing children acted as controls. These children were given the same tasks, except the British Picture Vocabulary Scale was substituted for the BSL task. Language ability correlated positively and significantly with ToM ability, and age was correlated with language ability for both the deaf and hearing children. Age, however, underpinned the relationship between ToM and language for deaf children with signing parents and hearing children but not for nonnative signing, HIU, or oral deaf children. Executive function performance in deaf children was not related to ToM ability. A subset of hearing children, matched on age and language standard scores with signing deaf children, passed significantly more ToM tasks than the deaf children did. The findings are discussed with respect to the hypotheses proposed by Peterson and Siegal (1995, 2000) and Courtin (2000).     

英语专业新生语言学习观念差异的影响因素分析

通过对某大学英语专业新生语言学习观念的问卷调查,采用定量分析方法分析了新生语言学习观念差异背后的原因.分析结果表明,当今大学生对语言学习本质的理解更全面,他们意识到语言学习不仅要学语法、词汇而且要提高综合技能,尤其是交际能力的培养;他们的工具型动机较弱而融入型动机较强;不同外语水平的学生只在语言学习本质、语言学习动机观念上存在显著性差异.     

Language specific speech perception and the onset of reading

In two studies the relationship between theonset of reading and language specific speechperception, the degree to which native speechperception is superior to non-native speechperception, was investigated. In Experiment 1with children of 4, 6, and 8 years, languagespecific speech perception occurred maximallyat 6 years and was positively related toreading ability for age and languagecomprehension level. In Experiment 2, with anexpanded range of ages and various stimulus andtask changes, the relationship between readingand language specific speech perception stillheld, and maximal language specific speechperception occurred around the onset of readinginstruction for three different sets of speechcontrasts, but not for a control set ofnon-speech contrasts. The results show thatlanguage specific speech perception is alinguistic rather than an acoustic phenomenon.Results are discussed in terms of early speechperception abilities, experience with oralcommunication, cognitive ability, readingability, alphabetic versus logographiclanguages, phonics versus whole word readinginstruction, and the effect of age versusinstruction.     

Genetic and Environmental Links Between Natural Language Use and Cognitive Ability in Toddlers

Although the phenotypic correlation between language and nonverbal cognitive ability is well‐documented, studies examining the etiology of the covariance between these abilities are scant, particularly in very young children. The goal of this study was to address this gap in the literature by examining the genetic and environmental links between language use, assessed through conversational language samples, and nonverbal cognition in a sample of 3‐year‐old twins (N = 281 pairs). Significant genetic and nonshared environmental influences were found for nonverbal cognitive ability and language measures, including mean length of utterance and number of different words, as well as significant genetic covariance between cognitive ability and both language measures.     

Beliefs about Language Learning Held by Pre-service Teachers:A case study

Language learning beliefs play a very important role in influencing learners’ attitudes,motivations and also shape their experiences and actions in classroom.Successful learners develop insightful beliefs about language learning process,their own abilities and the use of effective strategies.However language learning beliefs can be different because of individual learner differences and contextual diversity.This study aimed at exploring beliefs about language learning held by pre-service teachers.159 pre-service teachers majoring in English at Qianan Normal College for Nationalities participated in the study.A 34-item questionnaire adapted from Horwitz’s(1987) BALLI was used to collect the data.The results were reported and discussed from the following five aspects:1) beliefs about foreign language aptitude,2) beliefs about difficulty of language learning,3) beliefs about nature of language learning,4) beliefs about learning and communication strategies,and 5) beliefs about motivation and expectations.Suggestions on pedagogical implications and for future research were also indicated.     

Language, cognitive flexibility, and explicit false belief understanding: longitudinal analysis in typical development and specific language impairment

The hypothesis that language plays a role in theory-of-mind (ToM) development is supported by a number of lines of evidence (e.g., H. Lohmann & M. Tomasello, 2003). The current study sought to further investigate the relations between maternal language input, memory for false sentential complements, cognitive flexibility, and the development of explicit false belief understanding in 91 English-speaking typically developing children (M age = 61.3 months) and 30 children with specific language impairment (M age = 63.0 months). Concurrent and longitudinal findings converge in supporting a model in which maternal language input predicts the child's memory for false complements, which predicts cognitive flexibility, which in turn predicts explicit false belief understanding.     

The Language Factor in Elementary Mathematics Assessments: Computational Skills and Applied Problem Solving in a Multidimensional IRT Framework

The results of an exploratory study into measurement of elementary mathematics ability are presented. The focus is on the abilities involved in solving standard computation problems on the one hand and problems presented in a realistic context on the other. The objectives were to assess to what extent these abilities are shared or distinct, and the extent to which students' language level plays a differential role in these abilities. Data from a sample of over 2,000 students from first, second, and third grade in the Netherlands were analyzed in a multidimensional item response theory (IRT) framework. The latent correlation between the two ability dimensions (computational skills and applied mathematics problem solving) ranged from .81 in grade 1 to .87 in grade 3, indicating that the ability dimensions are highly correlated but still distinct. Moreover, students' language level had differential effects on the two mathematical abilities: Effects were larger on applied problem solving than on computational skills. The implications of these findings for measurement practices in the field of elementary mathematics are discussed.     

The impact of verbal capacity on theory of mind in deaf and hard of hearing children

Even when they have good language skills, many children with hearing loss lag several years behind hearing children in the ability to grasp beliefs of others. The researchers sought to determine whether this lag results from difficulty with the verbal demands of tasks or from conceptual delays. The researchers related children's performance on a nonverbal theory of mind task to their scores on verbal aptitude tests. Twelve French children (average age about 10 years) with severe to profound hearing loss and 12 French hearing children (average about 7 years) were evaluated. The children with hearing loss showed persistent difficulty with theory of mind tasks, even a nonverbal task, presenting results similar to those of hearing 6-year-olds. Also, the children with hearing loss showed a correlation between language level (lexical and morphosyntactic) and understanding of false beliefs. No such correlation was found in the hearing children.