盲童的空间概念及其组织

Space Concepts and Their Organization in Blind Children

为了探讨盲童空间认知的特点和语言和文化对空间认知的影响,以63名盲童为被试,对17对空间词作相似性分类,并用多维标度法和聚类分析法分析。结果表明:(1)盲童的空间词概念结构有两个维度:①状态/方位;②自身参照/他物参照。(2)盲童的空间认知围绕4个主题:①身体周围的三维方位;②空间距离;③三维边界;④空间状态。整个研究表明,视觉缺失决定盲童的空间词组织的特点,语言、文化和教育对盲童的空间概念及其组织也有重要影响。

There are two different views on the relationships between language and cognition： one is Linguistic Universalism, which holds that language is merely the input or output of thinking, and that differences in language do not affect the consistency of cognition; the other is Linguistic Relativism, which asserts that language affects cognition, and that people who speak different languages may have different styles of cognition. This kind of controversy also exists with respect to the relationships between spatial terms and spatial cognition. Some researchers believe that humans could universally share spatial cognition, but others believe that different languages could produce different spatial cognitions and different spatial experiences. Owing to loss of sight, blind people＇s may possess different space concepts and concept structures of space words. How do they organize the space words？ This study investigated the space concepts and their organization in the case of blind children. 63 blind children of Guangzhou Blind School took part in the experiment. The participants consisted of 43 congenital blind children and 20 post-natal blind children, 35 primary school children and 28 middle school blind children. They were asked to sort out 17 pairs of Chinese spatial terms summarized by Yi-fu Tuan into groups, according to the terms＇ similarities. The groupings were subject to a Multi-Dimensional Scaling analysis and a Hierarchical Clustering analysis in order to reveal the blind children＇ spatial cognitive themes and spatial concept constructions. The results showed that there were two dimensions in the semantic spaces of the space words of the blind children：0） state and direction;（2） geo-center and body-center. The blind children showed four space cognition themes：（1） three-dimensional direction around body; （2） space distance; （3） three-dimensional boundaries; （4） space states. The concept structures of spatial words of the congenital blind children and the postnatal blind children were similar basically, but there were some differences among them. The concept structures of spatial words of the congenital blind children dusplayed a vertical/horizontal dimension. This kind of result pattern could also be found in primary school blind children and middle school blind children caused by different reasons. The entire study showed that the lack of visual perception determined the nature of blind children＇s space term organization, but language, culture and education play an important part in blind people＇s spatial cognitive themes and spatial concept structure, too.