Multiple Factors in Early Symbol Use

Abstract Although young children begin to master a number of symbol systems in the first years of life, they need substantial social support to do so. Specifically, to detect a novel symbol-referent relation, young children may need very extensive, explicit information about the existence and nature of the relation. The three studies reported here show the importance of instructions for young children's use of a scale model as a source of information about a larger space. These results, in combination with prior research, demonstrate that instructions interact with other variables, including age and physical similarity; 5- to 7-year-old children can detect the model–room relation with no instructions at all, 4-year-olds can succeed with less complete instructions than 3- or 3-1/2-year-olds require, and 3-year-olds can get by with minimal instructions if the two spaces are made more similar to one another. This demonstration of the joint influence of multiple factors highlights the complexity of early symbol understanding and use. Some implications of these studies for the instructional use of symbolic objects are discussed.

[1]  K. Rosengren,et al.  Children's understanding of action lines and the static representation of speed of locomotion. , 1991, Child development.

[2]  H. Pick,et al.  Young children's use of models and photographs as spatial representations , 1992 .

[3]  J. Deloache,et al.  Physical similarity and young children's understanding of scale models. , 1991, Child development.

[4]  J. Deloache.  Rapid change in the symbolic functioning of very young children. , 1987, Science.

[5]  Douglas Frye,et al.  Cognitive Complexity and Control , 1998 .

[6]  J. Deloache.  Young children's understanding of the correspondence between a scale model and a larger space , 1989 .

[7]  S. Friedman,et al.  Developmental changes in the understanding of implied motion in two-dimensional pictures. , 1975, Child development.

[8]  J. Deloache.  Symbolic functioning in very young children: understanding of pictures and models. , 1991, Child development.

[9]  Donald P. Marzolf,et al.  Transfer in young children's understanding of spatial representations. , 1994, Child development.

[10]  Judy S. DeLoache,et al.  Early Understanding and Use of Symbols: The Model Model , 1995 .

[11]  U. Neisser,et al.  Ecological Approaches to Cognition : Essays in Honor of Ulric Neisser , 1999 .

[12]  J. Gibson.  The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception , 1979 .

[13]  Martin Hughes,et al.  Children and Number: Difficulties in Learning Mathematics , 1986 .

[14]  Douglas Frye,et al.  Cognitive complexity and control: A theory of the development of deliberate reasoning and intentional action , 1997 .

[15]  Lynn S. Liben,et al.  Fostering geographic literacy from early childhood: the contributions of interdisciplinary research , 1994 .

[16]  Michael Tomasello,et al.  The Cultural Ecology of Young Children’s Interactions With Objects and Artifacts , 1999 .

[17]  H. Wellman,et al.  Origin and truth: young children's understanding of imaginary mental representations. , 1993, Child development.

[18]  J. Deloache.  Dual representation and young children's use of scale models. , 2000, Child development.

[19]  J. Deloache,et al.  Manipulatives as symbols: A new perspective on the use of concrete objects to teach mathematics , 1997 .

[20]  W. H. Ittelson.  Visual perception of markings , 1996, Psychonomic bulletin & review.