Abstract:

Childhood is an important period for individual emotional development, in which the metaphorical associations between taste and emotion is a crucial research question. To explore children’s understanding of the associations between taste and emotion, and to reveal their internal developmental mechanisms and metaphorical associations, 110 children (aged from 3 to 5 years), 645 primary school children (aged from 8 to 13 years) and 215 adult college students were recruited as participants in the current study. Through explicit association task and association rating task, their understanding of the metaphorical associations between taste and emotion was investigated. The results showed that: 1) The taste-emotion metaphoric ability of children was developing from 3 to 5 years old, which gradually formed a two-way instead of a one-way metaphorical association. 2) The taste-emotion one-way associations ability of children in grade 2 (around 8 years old) was close to the level of adults, while the two-way associations ability of children in the sixth grade (about 12 years old) was similar to that of adults.

Key words: children, taste, emotion, metaphor

摘要：

日常语言中经常使用味觉词来表达情绪，但对其隐喻关联的研究相对较少。儿童期是个体情绪发展极为重要的时期，而味觉和情绪的隐喻关联是其中非常重要的研究问题。为探讨儿童对味觉和情绪间的关系理解，进一步揭示其内在发展机制与隐喻联结，本研究以110名幼儿(3～5岁)、645名小学儿童(8～13岁)及215名成人大学生为研究对象，通过显性关联任务及关联评级任务考察其对味觉和情绪的隐喻关系的理解。结果显示：(1)3～5岁儿童的味觉−情绪隐喻联结能力正在快速发展并且从单向逐渐形成了双向的隐喻联结。(2)小学二年级儿童(8岁左右)的味觉−情绪单向联结能力发展程度就已接近成人水平，但直到六年级(12岁左右)其双向联结能力才与成人无异。

关键词: 儿童, 味觉, 情绪, 隐喻