汉语成语谜语问题解决中思路竞争的眼动研究

An Eye Movement Study of Associate Competition in Chinese Idiom Riddles Solving

在谜语问题解决过程中,可能存在着通过简单联想和新异联想寻找答案这两种思路。两个实验中设置了包括寻常答案与新颖答案在内的若干备择答案(实验1为4个,实验2为6个)供被试选择,利用眼动技术记录被试在解题过程中的不同时间段内对新颖答案与寻常答案的平均注视时间,考察汉语成语谜语问题解决中两种思路之间冲突的过程。实验1操纵了任务要求,实验2操纵了规则线索的有效性。实验结果表明:(1)在成语谜语问题解决中的一段时间内新异联想和简单联想能够同时发生且形成竞争;(2)选择"新颖且合适答案"的任务要求,提高了成功形成新颖语义联结的概率,但是并没有加快新异联想发生、发展的进程,也没有改变两种思路相互竞争的局面;(3)有效的规则线索可以抑制简单联想,阻止其发生,同时可以加快新异联想发生、发展的进程。

Most Chinese idiom riddles require insightful thoughts to solve. Novel and simple associations can be formed during the process of idiom resolutions. Insightful thought occurs only when novel associations overwhelm simple ones. However, it is unclear how this happens in the mind. According to the Representational Change Theory, the competition happens in a sudden way. But according to the Process Monitoring Theory, it is completed gradually. By using eye-tracking technology, we intended to investigate the time course of insightful problem resolution, using Chinese idiom riddles as experimental materials. In this study, an option selection task was adopted. Chinese idiom riddles were presented, together with four types of options serving as the spare answers to the riddle （novel, ordinary, plausible and absolutely wrong）. Participants were asked to make a choice among options. At the same time, the fixation times of the participants spent on different options were recorded. In Experiment 1, the participants were randomly divided into an appropriate group and a novel group. In different groups, the participants were asked to make a choice between an appropriate answer and a novel and appropriate one. In Experiment 2, a 2 （general solution rule： effective vs. ineffective） x 2 （special solution rule： effective vs. ineffective） experimental designs was adopted. Besides, a general solving rule and a specific solving rule were presented at the same time. Results showed that there was a positive correlation between the fixation times of the participants spent on novel or ordinary answers and the percentage of the corresponding selections. The participants were found to have formed novel associations while fixating on novel answers, and simple associations while fixating on ordinary answers. The result further revealed that： （1） Novel associations and simple associations were formed simultaneously and competed to each other for a while before the idiom riddles were solved. （2） The demand of choosing a novel and appropriate answer induced people to make more efforts on novel association formation, and to select more novel answers. However, the task demand did not accelerate the time course of novel association formation, or change the competitive situation. （3） The effective solution rules, which promoted the novel answer selections, not only accelerated the time course of novel association formation, but also inhibited simple association formation, and eliminated the competition between them.