Two- and three-year-olds prefer mastery-oriented over outcome-oriented help

IF 1.8 3区心理学 Q3 PSYCHOLOGY, DEVELOPMENTAL

Cognitive Development Pub Date : 2024-04-01 DOI:10.1016/j.cogdev.2024.101462

Alexandra Raport , Canan Ipek, Valentina Gomez, Henrike Moll

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Abstract

It has been shown that school-aged children often turn to others for help with the motive to learn and expand on their knowledge or skills (so-called “mastery-oriented” help-seeking, Nelson-Le Gall, 1985). Although help-seeking in problem-solving contexts is increasingly studied in preschoolers, there is so far no experimental evidence that young children show a preference for mastery- as opposed to outcome-driven help. In two online experiments (N = 144, 72 female), 2- and 3-year-olds from diverse ethno-racial backgrounds living in the United States (68 % White; 16 % Latine) watched an agent failing at a task (e.g., pouring water into a cup) before they selected one of two helpers for the agent: one who demonstrated how to perform the task (mastery-oriented helper) or one who completed the task without demonstration (outcome-oriented helper). Children of both ages selected mastery-oriented helpers to assist the struggling agent (Experiments 1 and 2) but chose helpers randomly in a control condition in which the agent succeeded at the task and therefore needed no mastery-oriented help (Experiment 2). The findings indicate that young children recognize that furthering one’s abilities is a core motive of help-seeking.

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与注重结果的帮助相比，两三岁的幼儿更喜欢注重掌握的帮助

研究表明，学龄儿童往往出于学习和扩展知识或技能的动机而向他人寻求帮助（即所谓的 "以掌握为导向 "的寻求帮助，Nelson-Le Gall，1985 年）。尽管对学龄前儿童在问题解决情境中寻求帮助的研究越来越多，但迄今为止，还没有实验证据表明，相对于以结果为导向的帮助，幼儿更倾向于以掌握知识为导向的帮助。在两个在线实验中（N = 144，72 名女性），来自美国不同种族背景的两岁和三岁幼儿（68 % 白人；16 % 拉丁人）观看了一个代理失败的任务（例如，把水倒进杯子里），然后他们为代理选择了两个帮助者之一：一个是演示如何完成任务的帮助者（以掌握为导向的帮助者），另一个是不演示就完成任务的帮助者（以结果为导向的帮助者）。两个年龄段的幼儿都选择了以掌握为导向的帮助者来帮助陷入困境的代理（实验 1 和 2），但在对照条件下，他们是随机选择帮助者的，在对照条件下，代理成功完成了任务，因此不需要以掌握为导向的帮助（实验 2）。研究结果表明，幼儿认识到提高自身能力是寻求帮助的核心动机。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Cognitive Development Multiple-

CiteScore

3.20

自引率

5.60%

发文量

114

期刊介绍： Cognitive Development contains the very best empirical and theoretical work on the development of perception, memory, language, concepts, thinking, problem solving, metacognition, and social cognition. Criteria for acceptance of articles will be: significance of the work to issues of current interest, substance of the argument, and clarity of expression. For purposes of publication in Cognitive Development, moral and social development will be considered part of cognitive development when they are related to the development of knowledge or thought processes.