Abstract
The current study explored how relational language influenced the analogical reasoning among preschool children in China. Children (aged 4.5 and 5.5) in Experiment 1 were asked to complete a cross-mapped task where the object match competed with the relational match. The ANOVA results showed that the performance of both 4.5-year-olds and 4.5-year-olds were significantly improved after they heard Relational Language, F (1, 68) =44.821，p<0.05, η2=0.40. In Experiment 2, different distractors were added to the cross-mapped task and the 5.5-year-olds were replaced by 3.5 year-olds. The results demonstrated that the facilitating effect of Relational Language still existed among the youngest children and the performance of 4.5-year-olds was better than the 3.5-year-olds, F(1, 68)=6.76, p<0.05, η2=0.09. Furthermore, both age groups performed the worst under the distractor condition, indicating that the distractors made analogical reasoning more difficult, especially for the youngest children. Taken together, the current findings suggested that the facilitating effects of relational language in relational reasoning could also be observed in a broader sample.
Highlights
Analogical reasoning is the ability to identify and transfer an exploratory structure from a familiar system to an unfamiliar system
Within the 4.5-year-olds, the relational match made by Relational Language group (M=0.74, SD=0.33) was significantly higher than that of the Neutral Language group (M=0.30, SD=0.27; t (34) =4.35, p
A similar trend was found for 5.5-year-olds, the relational match made by Relational Language group (M=0.82, SD=0.26) was significantly higher than that of the Neutral Language group (M=0.35, SD=0.29; t (34) =5.17, p
Summary
Analogical reasoning is the ability to identify and transfer an exploratory structure from a familiar system (the base) to an unfamiliar system (the target). Over the last few decades, the significant importance of analogical reasoning has been repeatedly supported by studies in different areas. Goswami and Mead (1992) found that analogical reasoning was important in children’s cognitive development. Some study showed it could benefit the learning of scientific textbooks (Zheng, Yang, Garcia & McCadden, 2008); promote learning transfer (Goswami & Mead, 1992); and enhance certain aspects of creativity (Cubukcu & Cetintahra, 2010). Except for well-documented elements such as domain knowledge, working memory, and inhibitory control system (Abdellatif, Cummings & Maddux, 2008), some empirical studies have indicated that Relational Language could promote children’s analogical thought and increase children’s performance on spatial mapping tasks
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