A Longitudinal Study on the Development and Formation of Structures of Social Cognition in Children

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This study aims to clarify the mechanism of, and conditions for, the process of forming children's social cognition through experimental lessons.The predicted characteristics of development in children's social cognition are : 1)the development of children's social cognition can be divided into several qualitatively different phases ; 2)children's social cognition can be classified into the five categories, that is, Independent cognition, Referential cognition, Incorporated cognition, Reformative cognition, and Comprehensive cognition ; 3)the growth of children's social cognition is characterized by a spiral development of knowledge accumulation, knowledge network establishment, and knowledge integration ; 4)idiographic or fragmentary viewpoints of children develop into the ability to organise matters with a central focus on more intrinsic viewpoints through the transition period around grades four and five ; 5)the experience of perspective-taking promotes children's social cognition.On the basis of this, experimental lessons were conducted in order to demonstrate whether children's social cognition on economic events can be promoted by the cognition of locations taught through the experience of perspective-taking. The lessons were implemented using subjects of children in grades three, four and five, and learning effects among children in grades four and five were found. According to these results, it became clear that around grades four and five is an appropriate stage for lessons which integrate and give shape to information based on typical student viewpoints, and that the experience of perspective-taking is an effective learning activity.