Y. Yamana and T. Inoue (Japan)
distribution strategies, preschoolers, animations, numbers, cognitive development
The purpose of the present study is to investigate if viewing animations would influence the performances of preschoolers' distribution strategies. In our first experiment, 96 preschoolers (aged between 3 and 6 years old) were given a set of wooden chips in each trial and were asked to put those chips into equal numbers. Both before and after the viewing animation period, they had 5 trials of distribution tasks respectively. Experimental Group viewed a set of animation which illustrates One round Distribution (OD) Strategy whereas Control Group saw the irrelevant animation. The results showed no positive effects of viewing the relevant animations although the older children performed better regardless of the kind of animations. In the following experiment, Explanation Group was added to this distribution experiment. They heard the verbal description which explained how the animations should be related to the task while the animations were presented. The results showed the efficient strategy was more often used by Explanation Group. It was suggested that the visual cues of animations might influence the performances only when participants could identify the elements of the animations and understand the relationships between their tasks and what would happen in the animations.
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