| Summary: | 碩士 === 佛光大學 === 心理學系 === 99 === Cognitive equilibrium is seen as a normal state, while disbalance between cognition and external information provides momentum for children’s cognitive development by Piagetians. In order to regaining balance, one has to process the incoming contradictory information with either assimilation or accommodation psychological mechanisms. However, the advanced change can possibly occur insomuch as one realizes his/her existing cognitive system is inadequate in solving current cognitive conflicts. Thus, it is the detection ability of cognitive contradiction which plays an essential role in making cognitive development possible.
Literature available in reading and thinking indicates divergent results on the age development regarding conflict detection ability. Extant research reports that children are able to detect contradictory information in thinking area at the age of 4 or 5, whereas they can not become capable in reading areas until aged 11, or 12. The objective of current research aimed to examine whether the problem in methodology where the way of enquiry and the question applied would account the disparities. Three research questions were addressed in this study, that is, is there a relationship between 1) the form of contradictory information and age, 2) the way of probing and the detection performance on contradictory information, and 3) what are the ways in coping with contradictory information when detected. Two experiment designs with different contradictory story vignettes were used to assess the elementary school children’s ability in detecting conflicting information. In experiment 1, second-(n=44) and fifth-graders(n=41) were individually read two short narrative stories and each story contained either an implicit or explicit conflict information. Results indicted that the children’s ability in detecting conflicts increased with age and a significant difference emerged. In experiment 2, a group of 49 second- and 48 fifth-grade children were asked to detect either structure conflicts or detailed conflicts in two stories. The structure conflicts were easier to be detected than the detailed ones, and significant difference was only found in one of the stories in structure conflict.
The findings show the main reason for the children unable to detect the places contradictory information present is simply due to they could not remember them in the recall task in both experiments. However, the children still tended to either ignore the inconsistent sentences or make the inconsistent information seamlessly matched in maintaining cognitive equilibrium.
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