Abstract

Preschool children can use external symbols to aid their executive functioning (EF). The purpose of the current study was to investigate how symbols boost EF, specifically investigating the role of psychological distancing and symbolic understanding. Preschoolers were assessed on their level of symbolic understanding and completed two EF tasks. Half the children completed the first EF task using symbols, and all children completed the second EF task without the aid of symbols. Results indicated that children in the symbol group at first did significantly worse while they were using the symbols compared to the control group, though their performance improved over time. Control group performance was significantly worse in the second EF task. Symbolic understanding was sometimes related to EF performance for children in the symbol group but not the control group. The current research highlights the complexity of symbol use to influence cognitive functioning.

摘要

学龄前儿童可以使用外部符号来帮助他们的执行功能 (EF)。当前研究的目的是研究符号如何提高 EF，特别是研究心理疏远和符号理解的作用。对学龄前儿童的符号理解水平进行了评估，并完成了两项 EF 任务。一半的孩子使用符号完成了第一个 EF 任务，所有孩子都完成了第二个 EF 任务，而没有符号的帮助。结果表明，与对照组相比，符号组的孩子最初在使用符号时表现明显更差，但他们的表现随着时间的推移而提高。在第二个 EF 任务中，对照组的表现明显更差。符号理解有时与符号组而非对照组儿童的 EF 表现有关。当前的研究强调了符号使用影响认知功能的复杂性。