Development of problem solving by analogy in childhood

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K14389
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 10020:Educational psychology-related
• Research Institution: Edogawa University
• Principal Investigator: Otsuka Shino 江戸川大学, メディアコミュニケーション学部, 准教授 (30735684)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: 類推 / 問題解決 / 児童

Outline of Final Research Achievements

It is called analogy that the cognitive function of recognizing the similarity between the knowledge we already have and the new problem in front of us and transferring knowledge.
The purpose in this study is that I examined to see whether the way of recognizing similarities is different between childhood and early childhood, and whether they can solve problems by analogy.
The results of this study showed that the third grade of elementary school could use partial similarity for analogical problem solving, but it was difficult to make a complete analogy. The types of similarities to be able to focus varied developmentally. First graders were some mentions of superficial similarity, but third graders were some mentions structural similarity. It suggests that children about nine years old become aware of similarities in problem solving and acquire the ability to focus on the essence.

Free Research Field

発達心理学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

類推は、知識を引き移す際に必要な認知能力である。これまで幼児期の類推による問題解決の発達について知見が重ねられてきたが、今回、児童期までの発達を明らかにすることができた。
知識を応用する力の育成が求められる現代、子どもの類推の発達過程が明らかになることは、発達に合わせて教育を施すことにつながり、意義があると考える。
具体的には、幼児期から児童期の始まりの頃には、類推によって応用することが難しいため、見た目が似ている例を用いながら、応用を繰り返すことが重要である。また、児童期の中期の頃には、見た目ではなく、課題の本質の類似性に着目できるため、抽象的な課題に取り組む経験が重要になってくると考えられる。