An Experimental Study On Time Perception of Five-To-Eight-Year-Old Children

Abstract

How does the time perception of children develop? What features mark the process of development? And what major stages does the development go through? This is one of the subjects that developmental psychology needs to study. Foreign psychologists like E. J. Smythe, S. Goldstone and others5,6 studied both the active and passive time estimate by seconds of children of the six-to-fourteen age bracket. They held that the estimate of short time intervals by children of the eight-to-four teen age bracket is relatively correct; their time concepts gradually tend to stablize, and they can use related reference signals to help correct mistakes. In fact, they are not much different from young adults. In comparison, children of the six-to-seven age group cannot judge time accurately. Their judgement is varied and unstable, and their estimate of the 30" interval tends to be on the short side. Moreover, they are unable to correct their mistakes in estimation by means of time-related reference signals. The researchers were of the opinion that this has something to do with their inability to use the kinesthetic cues. A. G. El'kin4 in 1928 studied children's estimate of time intervals. He held that such estimates are often inaccurate, and the average error would decrease by 30 percent with the increase of their age. In 1966 I. I. Kotov? studied the interaction of two signal systems over time perception of children of the intermediate -school age. He deemed that the first signal system plays adominant role in reflecting short time intervals (2"-5"), and the second signal system gradually asserts itself in the reflection of longtime intervals (5"-60"). The older the children, the greater the role of language links in time perception. There have not been many papers published on children's time perception in China aside from the authors' previous report. This study aims to find out the special features and main stages of the development of five-to-eight-year-old children's time perception with second as the time unit.