Predicting the outcomes of physical events: Two-year-olds fail to reveal knowledge of solidity and support

被引:108
作者
Hood, B
Carey, S
Prasada, S
机构
[1] Univ Bristol, Dept Expt Psychol, Bristol BS8 1TN, Avon, England
[2] NYU, New York, NY USA
[3] Dartmouth Coll, Hanover, NH 03755 USA
关键词
D O I
10.1111/1467-8624.00247
中图分类号
G44 [教育心理学];
学科分类号
0402 ; 040202 ;
摘要
Two-year-olds' (N = 153) knowledge of solidity was tested in four search tasks adapted from infant looking-time experiments. In Experiment 1, 2-year-olds failed to search in the correct location for a falling ball after a hidden shelf that blocked its trajectory had been inserted in the apparatus. Experiment 2 extended this finding by showing that 2-year-olds failed to take into account the effects of either removing or inserting a shelf in their search for a toy dropped behind a screen. Experiment 3 examined sensitivity to the constraint provided by a solid barrier on horizontal motion. In all three experiments, 2-year-old children searched initially at the location where they saw the object during familiarization. Experiment 4, using multiple test trials but no familiarization to a pretest location, also showed that 2-year-olds failed to take the presence or absence of a barrier into account when planning where to search for a toy they had seen dropped behind a screen. In all of these studies, 2-year-olds showed no evidence of representing solidity and support constraints on the trajectories of falling objects. Experiments 1 and 3 also included 21/2-year-olds (N = 31), who succeeded on these search tasks. The implications of the poor performance of 2-year-olds, in the face of success by very young infants on looking time measures of sensitivity to similar constraints on object motion, are discussed.
引用
收藏
页码:1540 / 1554
页数:15
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