贵州少数民族儿童青少年SNARC效应的发展

Development of the SNARC Effect in the Ethnic Minority Children and Adolescents of Guizhou

采用奇偶判断任务,考察二年级至大学阶段贵州民族儿童青少年SNARC效应的发展状况。结果显示:三年级开始出现SNARC效应(包括正确率SNARC效应);各阶段SNARC效应无显著差异;高、低年级正确率存在显著差异,六年级以后各阶段正确率无显著差异。结论:民族儿童三年级开始形成数字的空间表征;SNARC效应的大小不因年龄而发生变化;被试对奇偶知识的掌握存在发展过程,三年级可能基本理解奇偶信息,六年级后熟练掌握奇偶信息。

The SNARC effect reflected the fact that the participants＇ reaction times （RTs） to small numbers were faster with the left than with the right hand, whereas the converse for large numbers. Previous research suggested that the initial age of children showing the SNARC effect was inconsistent-the mathematics education difference might be one of the reasons. Besides, previous studies focused on subjects in well-developed areas in terms of education. But for China, there were regional differences in educational development. Especially in Guizhou, the education base and mathematics education of ethnic minorities were far behind the developed areas. The SNARC effect of minority subjects in these areas should have different characteristics. Therefore, our study used the parity decision task to test the developmental pattern of the SNARC effect of ethnic minority children and adolescents in Guizhou. In current research, 243 ethnic students of Guizhou were asked to judge parity between 8 Arabic numerals from 1 to 9 （except 5）. To examine the SNARC effect, a repeated-measures ANOVA was conducted with responding hand （left vs. right） and number size （14 as ＂small＂ vs. 6-9 as ＂large＂） for each age group. And then, the regression method was used to further investigate the SNARC effect. We subtracted RTs or accuracy of the left-hand responses from those of the fight-hand responses and regressed those differences on the magnitude of the numbers and obtained an unstandardized regression coefficient for each participant. One-sample t test was used to test the significance of the mean unstandardized regression coefficient of each group; Besides, to understand age differences, the data was analyzed in two ways： （1） The ANOVA approach was used to examine the three-way interaction （age by hand by number size）; （2） One way ANOVA approach was used to examine whether there are grade differences in unstandardized regression coefficient. The results showed： （1） On the reaction times： ①The interaction between number size and hand was significant for all groups （excluding grade）; ②The significant T values which suggested a significant SNARC effect existed in all stages from grade 3 to university; ③ The three-way interaction was not significant, and the unstandardized regression coefficients of each grade group showed also no significant difference; （2） On the accuracy： ① the interaction between number size and hand was significant from grade 3 to grade 6. But, the significant T values existed from grade 3 to grade 5. This suggested that the SNARC effect on accuracy indeed existed in these three grades; ② The three-way interaction was not significant, and the unstandardized regression coefficients from grade 3 to grade 5 showed also no significant difference. These findings suggested that the ethnic children could exhibit SNARC effect from grade 3 which was later than urban children in developed areas. The size of the SNARC effect did not change with ages. The results from grade 3 to grade 5 showed the same size SNARC effect on accuracy. Besides, there was a development process for ethnic students to master the parity knowledge, they could basically understand parity information in grade 3 and master it in grade 6.