The Development Of Chinese Preschool Children's Mental Time Line And Its Educational Enlightenment

Previous research has shown that the digital representation have space characteristics,show that the Spatial-Numerical Association of Response Codes effect(SNARC),the relatively small number(e.g,1,2)usually establish contact with the left side of the space,and a relatively large Numbers(e.g,99,100)usually establish contact with the right space,characterization of digital is a from left to right Mental number line,when people in the use of digital axis will be relatively small Numbers to the left number axis,the larger Numbers on a number line of the right side.Expanded over the years by further study found that is not only a digital representation space characteristics,characterization of some abstract concepts,(such as emotion,morality,time perception,etc.)also have space characteristics,.However,in the abstract domain,it is mainly manifested as that it has formed a relation with one side of the space in the past and another side in the space in the future.The timerepresentation has a mental time line in the space,that is,the Spatial-Temporal Association of Response Codes effect(STARC)similar to Spatial-Numerical Association of Response Codes effect.In this study,preschool children aged four to six and college students with native Chinese speakers were selected as subjects to explore the possibility of STARC and further study the development process and characteristics of preschool children's mental time line.Based on the research paradigm of Tversky(2001)and Barner(2018),the experiment adopted a mixed experimental design of 3*2*3.The independent variables were primes and age groups,and the dependent variables were linear and directional.In the specific experiment process,the subjects were required to place and assign the time-dependent vocabulary provided by the main test on the test paper.Q: yesterday/today/tomorrow,morning/noon/afternoon,breakfast/lunch/dinner.Participants ask questions first hypothesis test paper to a certain point for intermediate time word meaning(today,at noon,lunch)and put a sticker,then please participants will indicate the time significance of vocabulary(,yesterday morning,breakfast)placed in the arbitrary position of the test paper,and then the said future time meaning of vocabulary(tomorrow,in the afternoon,and dinner).The test paperused is 21cm*21cm white square paper,and the stickers used are round stickers with a diameter of 8mm.The results show that both adults and children can spontaneously produce a linear representation of time,but there are some differences in the specific direction in different age groups.This study further draws the following conclusions :(1)there are the mental time line in both adults and preschool children under the Chinese background;(2)the mental time line in preschool children show a rapid development trend,and the development direction of the mental time line in early preschool children is uncertain and malleable;(3)comprehensive comparison of adult and characterization of pre-school age children's mental time line,preliminary showed that the formation of mental time line is congenital and acquired as a result,the effect of specific characterization of direction is larger depends on early childhood experience,to support the conceptual metaphor theory and cognitive theory point of view.Based on the research conclusion,the relevant educational implications are proposed,including(1)the perception of time based on children's age characteristics starting from the "developmental characteristics of the mental time line";(2)take "space concept" as the supporting point,and help children understand the concept of time with the help of space concept;(3)take "life scene" as the construction point and attach importance to the educational role of environment to help children learn time representation;(4)based on "time vocabulary",design time education activities to guide children to experience the time sequence.