CONCEPTS AND THEORIES IN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

问题：孩子们如何组织他们对世界的认识？ 最近，概念的处理发生了变化，从 传统观点认为，概念可以被表征为表面的， 特征，到将概念视为嵌入常识的理论观点 解释框架。 儿童的概念与 理论是特别引人注目的，因为它违背了以前广泛的 把儿童的概念看作是受知觉约束的公认观点。 与此相反， 学龄前儿童期望类别成员具有非明显的相似性， 面对明显的知觉差异，并判断无形 内部部分对身份和功能特别重要， 一件物品 从某种意义上说，很小的孩子就像是一个类别的成员， 有着共同的本质 然而，人们对以下方面知之甚少： 4岁以下的本质主义信念的发展过程;语言的作用是什么 在向儿童传递本质主义方面发挥作用; 本质主义对因果推理的影响;或者如何调和本质主义与 对儿童的传统看法是注重突出的外表。 的 拟议的研究使用自然主义语言分析和实验 对2至10岁儿童的研究，以解决这些问题。 具体而言，该提案有三个目标：1）审查本质主义如何 儿童（2-4岁）用自然语言表达信仰， 本质主义的自然语言表达如何被解释为 孩子 对自然语言表达的研究将揭示 本质主义信仰的早期发展;自然的研究 语言解释将揭示本质主义信念 2）研究发展中的 非明显特征（原因、本体和内部属性） 3）调和本质主义与传统的 儿童的观点集中在世界的感性方面， 澄清导致不同业绩概况的条件。 这项工作将使研究人员超越简单的模型， 发展的二分法转变，以建立更微妙和知情的 理解导致灵活性的条件-- 以及原因 总之，这些研究将提供聚合和精确的 关于概念、语言和理论之间联系的证据 在童年早期建造。

DESCRIPTION: How do children organize their knowledge about the world? Recently there has been a shift in the treatment of concepts, from traditional views assuming that concepts can be characterized by superficial features, to theory views treating concepts as embedded in common-sense explanatory frameworks. The finding that children's concepts are tied to theories is especially striking, as it runs counter to a previously widely accepted view of children's concepts as perceptually bound. In contrast, preschoolers expect category members to share nonobvious similarities, even in the face of salient perceptual dissimilarities, and judge non-visible internal parts to be especially crucial to the identity and functioning of an item. In a sense, very young children acts as if members of a category share an underlying essence. However, little is known regarding: the developmental course if essentialist beliefs below age 4; what role language plays in transmitting essentialism to children; what implications essentialism has for causal reasoning; or how to reconcile essentialism with traditional views of children as focused on salient appearances. The proposed research uses naturalistic language analyses and experimental studies with children 2 to 10 years of age to address these questions. Specifically, the proposal has three aims: 1) To examine how essentialist beliefs are expressed in natural language by children (age 2-4 years), and how natural language expressions of essentialism are interpreted by children. The studies of natural language expression will reveal the scope of essentialist beliefs early in development; the studies of natural language interpretation will reveal a mechanism whereby essentialist beliefs are transmitted; 2) To examine the developmental incorporation of non-obvious features (causes, ontologies, and internal properties) into children's categories; and 3) To reconcile essentialism with the traditional view of children as focused on perceptual aspects of the world, by clarifying the conditions that lead to different profiles of performance. This work will allow researchers to go beyond simple models that posit dichotomous shifts over development, to build more subtle and informed understandings of the conditions that lead to flexibility in performance -- and why. Altogether, these studies will provide converging and precise evidence regarding the links among concepts, language, and theory construction in early childhood.