Deaf Children and Normal Children's Understanding of Pretence Representation, Imitative Pretence and Deceptive Pretence

Abstract

Abstract: The research of children understanding pretence could reflect the extensive content of theory of mind research and some suspicion to the research conclusion of classical false belief task. This research held that the pretence understanding includes understanding pretence representation, imitative pretence and deceptive pretence. This research selected 86 preschool children aged from 3 to 5, and 122 deaf children aged from 3 to 12. Then they were divided into 3 and 5 age groups separately. This research was consisted of two pretence tasks to investigate pretence understanding content above and the difference. The results indicated:1) When the characteristics of the things involved in the pretence tasks didn't accord with children's experience, nine-year-old deaf children and normal children aged from 3 to 5 could not understand pretense representation and imitative pretence; while the context accorded with children's experience, most of the normal children aged 3 and the deaf children aged 7 can; 2) Five-year-old normal children and deaf children aged 7 could understand deceptive pretence, which was later than their understanding of the pretence representation and imitative pretence in the same context. 3) Though the age of deaf children understanding pretend tasks was 2 to 4 years later than the normal children, the starting age and degree of understanding these questions may be the same and the trend in development was similar. 4) Signer deaf children could understand pretence tasks better than oral deaf children. Those whose parents can make signer and those whose parents are deaf were better than others in understanding. This research indicated that young children understood pretence representation was worse substantially. Deaf children understand pretend tasks were later than formal children, while the development trend was similar. The sign language level of the deaf children and their parents greatly influenced deaf children's understanding pretence.

Key words: deaf children, preschool children, pretence, mental representation, theory of mind

摘要： 本研究认为，对假装的认识包含理解假装表征、模仿性假装和欺骗性假装。选取了86名3-5岁的学前儿童和122名3-12岁的聋童，考察他们对假装上述内容的认知情况及差异。结果表明：（1）当假装任务中涉及的事物特征不符合儿童经验时，9岁前的聋童和正常学前儿童难以理解假装表征和模仿性假装。反之若符合儿童的经验，大部分3岁正常儿童及7岁聋童就能正确理解上述内容；（2）5岁正常儿童和7岁聋童已能正确理解欺骗性假装，这比他们在同样情境下理解假装的表征和模仿性假装的年龄要迟。（3）聋童理解假装问题要比正常儿童滞后2-4年，但他们正确理解这些问题的年龄起点及达到的程度与正常儿童可能是一致的，而且发展的趋势也是相似的。（4）手语聋童理解假装问题的成绩好于口语聋童，那些父母会手语或父母是聋人的聋童的成绩好于其他聋童。本研究的结论是：低龄正常儿童和聋童还难以真正理解假装表征；聋童对假装的认识比正常儿童滞后2-4年，但发展趋势相似；聋童自身的手语水平及其父母的手语水平是影响他们理解假装的主要因素。

关键词: 聋童, 学前儿童, 假装, 心理表征, 心理理论

CLC Number:

B844.2

CHEN Youqing. Deaf Children and Normal Children's Understanding of Pretence Representation, Imitative Pretence and Deceptive Pretence[J]. Studies of Psychology and Behavior, 2018, 16(1): 66-73.

陈友庆. 聋童与正常儿童对假装表征、模仿性假装和欺骗性假装的认识[J]. 心理与行为研究, 2018, 16(1): 66-73.

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