RUI: Arrows of Time in Infancy III

这个项目将帮助心理学家和教育工作者更好地理解正常人类婴儿和儿童时间知识的早期发展。成年人对只能在一个时间方向上发生的变化的向前和向后的表现高度协调。例如，一个液体倾泻的胶片，当倒过来看时，是非常反常的。成年人一定已经内化了成千上万这样的转变如何正常展开的时间组织表征。然而，人们对这种敏感性的起源和性质知之甚少。首席研究员在过去7年的研究表明，对几种转变的时间方向的预期，如倒液体或打碎物体，在4到17个月之间形成。拟议的实验旨在以多种方式补充这些发现。首先，两项利用特殊训练的研究将阐明经验在发展时间方向敏感性方面的作用。其次，一项新的重力转换研究将测试先前证明的偏好的普遍性。第三个问题是动态感知特征在婴儿偏好中的重要性。通过将方向性偏好与完全可见和部分筛选的刺激版本进行比较，我们可以了解特定年龄的婴儿是否可以在心理上代表这些变化，还是仅仅是识别的感知特征的组合。第四，对3岁左右儿童的判断的研究将有助于我们解释过去研究中看到的晚期发展趋势。关于儿童如何适应他们的世界的时间特征的基本信息是理解他们的感知和认知能力的重要组成部分。期望对设计学前课程和幼儿干预计划的从业者有启示。

This project will help psychologists and educators better understand the early development of temporal knowledge in normal human infants and children. Adults are highly attuned to forward vs. backward presentations of transformations that can only happen in one temporal direction. For example, a film of liquid pouring, when viewed in reverse, is strikingly anomalous. Adults must have internalized temporally organized representations of how thousands of such transformations normally unfold. However, very little is known about the origins and nature of this sensitivity. The principle investigator's research over the past 7 years has suggested that expectations about the temporal direction of several transformations, such as pouring a liquid or breaking an object, develop between 4 and 17 months. The proposed experiments are intended to add to these findings in a number of ways. First, two studies using special training will shed light on the role of experience in the development of temporal-directional sensitivity. Second, a study with new gravity transformations will test the generality of previously demonstrated preferences. A third issue is the importance of dynamic perceptual features in infants' preferences. By comparing directional preferences to fully visible and partially screened versions of stimuli, we can learn whether infants of a given age can mentally represent these changes or whether it is only the combination of perceptual features that is recognized. Fourth, a study of the judgments of children of about 3 years of age will help us interpret the late developmental trends seen in past studies. Basic information about how children adapt to the temporal features of their world is an important part of understanding their perceptual and cognitive abilities. It is expected to have implication for practitioners who design preschool curricula and early childhood intervention programs.