직관에 반하는 정보에 대한 유아의 판단과 실행기능의 관련성

Objectives: This study examined young children’s judgments of counter-intuitive information, andwhether their judgments relate to the executive function and theory of mind. Methods: Ninety-two children aged 3 to 6 years were provided with counter-intuitive informationthat the smallest doll was the heaviest among five Russian dolls in a one-on-one interview with aresearcher. Subsequently, how children judged the weights of the dolls, whether they did anexperiment to check the weights during the researcher’s absence, how they judged the weights uponthe researcher’s suggestion, and whether their judgments were related to the executive function andtheory of mind were examined. Results: Following the researcher’s counter-intuitive information, the 3-year-olds were more likely tojudge that the smallest one might be the heaviest. Further, spontaneous experiments during theresearcher’s absence were conducted only among a small number of children aged 4-years and up. Therewere no more differences in judgments of weight among age groups of children when it came to checkingthe actual weights of the dolls upon the researcher’s suggestion. Additionally, children with betterinhibitory and shifting ability tended to judge the heaviest doll based on their own intuition. A multipleregression analysis, controlling for relevant variables showed that only shifting ability predicted thechildren’s judgments based on their intuition before the suggested experiment. Conclusion: With age, young children may come to judge a physical situation based on their ownclear intuition, rather than merely following another’s counter-intuitive information. This tendencyappears to be related to the executive function, especially shifting ability. KCI Citation Count: 0