Ask me why, don't tell me why: Asking children for explanations facilitates relational thinking.
Dev Sci
; 26(1): e13274, 2023 01.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-35500137
ABSTRACT
Identifying abstract relations is essential for commonsense reasoning. Research suggests that even young children can infer relations such as "same" and "different," but often fail to apply these concepts. Might the process of explaining facilitate the recognition and application of relational concepts? Based on prior work suggesting that explanation can be a powerful tool to promote abstract reasoning, we predicted that children would be more likely to discover and use an abstract relational rule when they were prompted to explain observations instantiating that rule, compared to when they received demonstration alone. Five- and 6-year-olds were given a modified Relational Match to Sample (RMTS) task, with repeated demonstrations of relational (same) matches by an adult. Half of the children were prompted to explain these matches; the other half reported the match they observed. Children who were prompted to explain showed immediate, stable success, while those only asked to report the outcome of the pedagogical demonstration did not. Findings provide evidence that explanation facilitates early abstraction over and above demonstration alone.
Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Resolução de Problemas
/
Formação de Conceito
Tipo de estudo:
Prognostic_studies
Limite:
Adult
/
Child
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Child, preschool
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Humans
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Dev Sci
Assunto da revista:
PSICOLOGIA
Ano de publicação:
2023
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Estados Unidos