当前位置: X-MOL 学术Curr. Biol. › 论文详情
Our official English website, www.x-mol.net, welcomes your feedback! (Note: you will need to create a separate account there.)
Children Devise and Selectively Use Tools to Offload Cognition.
Current Biology ( IF 8.1 ) Pub Date : 2020-07-09 , DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.06.035
Adam Bulley 1 , Thomas McCarthy 2 , Sam J Gilbert 3 , Thomas Suddendorf 2 , Jonathan Redshaw 2
Affiliation  

From maps sketched in sand to supercomputing software, humans ubiquitously enhance cognitive performance by creating and using artifacts that bear mental load [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. This extension of information processing into the environment has taken center stage in debates about the nature of cognition in humans and other animals [6, 7, 8, 9]. How does the human mind acquire such strategies? In two experiments, we investigated the developmental origins of cognitive offloading in 150 children aged between 4 and 11 years. We created a memory task in which children were required to recall the location of hidden targets. In one experiment, participants were provided with a pre-specified cognitive offloading opportunity: an option to mark the target locations with tokens during the hiding period. Even 4-year-old children quickly adopted this external strategy and, in line with a metacognitive account, children across ages offloaded more often when the task was more difficult. In a second experiment, we provided children with the means to devise their own cognitive offloading strategy. Very few younger children spontaneously devised a solution, but by ages 10 and 11, nearly all did so. In a follow-up test phase, a simple prompt greatly increased the rate at which the younger children devised an offloading strategy. These findings suggest that sensitivity to the difficulties of thinking arises early in development and improves throughout the early school years, with children learning to modify the world around them to compensate for their cognitive limits.



中文翻译:

儿童设计并有选择地使用工具来卸载认知。

从用沙子绘制的地图到超级计算软件,人类通过创造和使用承受心理负担的人工制品,无处不在地提高认知能力 [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]。这种将信息处理扩展到环境中的行为已成为关于人类和其他动物认知本质的辩论的中心舞台 [6, 7, 8, 9]。人类的思维是如何获得这些策略的?在两个实验中,我们调查了 150 名 4 至 11 岁儿童认知卸载的发育起源。我们创建了一个记忆任务,要求孩子们回忆隐藏目标的位置。在一项实验中,参与者获得了预先指定的认知卸载机会:在隐藏期间用标记标记目标位置的选项。即使是 4 岁的儿童也很快采用了这种外部策略,并且根据元认知帐户,当任务更困难时,不同年龄段的儿童会更频繁地卸载。在第二个实验中,我们为孩子们提供了设计他们自己的认知卸载策略的方法。很少有年幼的孩子会自发地想出解决办法,但到了 10 岁和 11 岁,几乎所有人都这样做了。在后续测试阶段,一个简单的提示大大提高了年幼的孩子设计卸载策略的速度。这些发现表明,对思维困难的敏感性在发育早期出现,并在整个学龄早期得到改善,随着儿童学习改变周围的世界以弥补他们的认知限制。当任务更困难时,不同年龄段的儿童会更频繁地卸载。在第二个实验中,我们为孩子们提供了设计他们自己的认知卸载策略的方法。很少有年幼的孩子会自发地想出解决办法,但到了 10 岁和 11 岁,几乎所有人都这样做了。在后续测试阶段,一个简单的提示大大提高了年幼的孩子设计卸载策略的速度。这些发现表明,对思维困难的敏感性在发育早期出现,并在整个学龄早期得到改善,随着儿童学习改变周围的世界以弥补他们的认知限制。当任务更困难时,不同年龄段的儿童会更频繁地卸载。在第二个实验中,我们为孩子们提供了设计他们自己的认知卸载策略的方法。很少有年幼的孩子会自发地想出解决办法,但到了 10 岁和 11 岁,几乎所有人都这样做了。在后续测试阶段,一个简单的提示大大提高了年幼的孩子设计卸载策略的速度。这些发现表明,对思维困难的敏感性在发育早期出现,并在整个学龄早期得到改善,随着儿童学习改变周围的世界以弥补他们的认知限制。很少有年幼的孩子会自发地想出解决办法,但到了 10 岁和 11 岁,几乎所有人都这样做了。在后续测试阶段,一个简单的提示大大提高了年幼的孩子设计卸载策略的速度。这些发现表明,对思维困难的敏感性在发育早期出现,并在整个学龄早期得到改善,随着儿童学习改变周围的世界以弥补他们的认知限制。很少有年幼的孩子会自发地想出解决办法,但到了 10 岁和 11 岁,几乎所有人都这样做了。在后续测试阶段,一个简单的提示大大提高了年幼的孩子设计卸载策略的速度。这些发现表明,对思维困难的敏感性在发育早期出现,并在整个学龄早期得到改善,随着儿童学习改变周围的世界以弥补他们的认知限制。

更新日期:2020-09-08
down
wechat
bug