Teaching Young Children the Symbolic Function of an Object

OLGA PERALTA; MARÍA DEL ROSARIO MAITA; FLORENCIA MAREOVICH

Seattle

Congreso; Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development; 2013

Society for Research in Child Development

Children are exposed to symbolic objects that they have to learn to use very early in life. While numerous studies have centered on the developmental bases and on different factors affecting children?s symbolic understanding, the issue of how their comprehension is shaped by instruction is much less explored (DeLoache, 1989; DeLoache, Peralta & Anderson, 1999; Peralta & Salsa, 2003; Salsa & Peralta, 2007). These studies used search tasks in which instruction was conceived as the amount or kind of information provided before the tasks started. In the present research, we introduced a novel manipulation (teaching) adding contingent information and corrective feedback when the child failed the first search. We reasoned that in everyday interactions when adults instruct children, they use direct intentional teaching, explanations, contingent information and feedback; all these constitute powerful natural mechanisms in the transmission of knowledge and skills (Csbira & Gergely, 2011; Tomasello, 1999). We conducted three experiments in which children had to find a toy hidden in a small room using a simple black and white map. Experiment 1 explored at what age children did not need any instructions. We tested children aged 3.0, 3.6 and 3.10. Experiment 2 compared the performance of 3.0-year-olds varying the informational support in: no instruction, complete instruction (before the task) and teaching (complete instruction+feedback). Experiment 2a investigated the impact of teaching at an earlier age, 2.6-years-old. Predictions were: 3.0-year-old children will not understand the symbolic function of the map on their own, but older children will. However, if explicitly taught, 3.0-year-olds will succeed, but 2.6-year-olds will not. Results of Experiment 1 revealed that the age groups differed (Kruskal-Wallis = 19.89, df=2, p< .001). Most 3.10- year-olds succeeded with no instructions, 3.6-year-olds showed a divided performance (about half did), and 3.0-year-olds were quite unsuccessful. Post-hoc analysis confirmed the differences between 3.0 and 3.6 (U=12, p< .001), between 3.0 and 3.10 (U=66.5, p< .01), and between 3.6 and 3.10 year-old children (U= 44.50, p < .001). Experiment 2 showed that 3.0 year-old succeeded only if explicitly taught. Their performance in the three conditions differed significantly (Kruskal-Wallis =11.29, p< .05). Post hoc analysis showed differences between teaching and no instruction (U=46, p< .001), and between teaching and complete instruction groups (U=46, p< .001); but, surprisingly, not between the complete and no instruction (U= 33, p=.87). Binomial tests indicated that only the teaching group performed reliably above chance (p=.001). At 2.6- years of age, despite the teaching received, children did not recognize the map as a source of knowledge to guide the search (12% correct), their performance was below chance and lower than the one of the 3-year-olds (U= 24, p< .001). This research shows that at some points in development it is possible to teach young children the symbolic function of an object and that contingent information and feedback are powerful mechanisms, in their absence, the impact of instruction may be hindered. Taken together the results illustrate that early comprehension of a map, and probably of other symbolic objects as well, is rooted in developmental and contextual factors.