四至九岁儿童类概念的发展的实驗——Ⅰ.分类与分类命名的实驗研究

AN INVESTIGATION IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF CONCEPTS IN CHILDREN OF 4—9 YEARS Ⅰ. EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES ON CLASSIFICATION AND GENERIC NAMING

問題 关于概念形成和发展的心理学研究已有过不少,但多是研究較簡单的概念,至于不同层次类概念的研究,則以韦尔契(L.Welch)的研究为最系統。他既研究了真实概念的形成,也研究了人为概念的形成,还进行了关于概念形成的个別訓練。結果說明从单一客体的抽象和从一組客体或从范围較广的客体的抽象是属于不同阶段和层次的。

A study was made among 72 children from 4—9 years of age on the classification of various objects (depicted on cards), falling into several categories.The objects could be divided according to different categories of varying levels e.g. (a) at the lowest level, birds, fish, etc. could be grouped separately, and (b) at the second level, they were classified as "animal", a higher level of abstract conception.Each child was asked: (1) to sort according to his own ideas of classification; (2) to pick up the cards according to specified classifications; and (3) to give the generic name to previously sorted cards.The results showed that:1. The percentage of correct responses rose with increasing age for both levels.2. In general, the children were more successful in the second task than in the first; and they were better in the first task than in the third.3. Variations in successful performance were shown in different age groups. For the first level, in all the tasks, the greatest variation was shown in the age groups 4—5 and 5—6, while for the second level, the most marked difference was shown in the 7—8 age group in the second task.4. Differences were also found in the classification for the same level as regards different objects. The classification of such objects as tables and chairs was superior to that of objects such as vegetables and fruit.