Understanding Symbols
Paragraph A
About 20 years ago I had one of those wonderful moments when research takes an unexpected but fruitful turn. I had been studying toddler memory and was beginning a new experiment with two‑and‑a‑half‑and three‑year‑olds. For the project, I had built a model of a room that was in my laboratory. The real space contained basic furniture such as a couch and table. The miniature version was as similar as possible to its larger counterpart; the furniture was the same shape and material and was arranged in the same position. For the study a child watched as we hid a miniature toy‑a plastic dog we called Little Snoopy‑ in the model. We then encouraged the child to find ‘Big Snoopy,’ a large version of the toy ‘hiding’ in the same place in his big room.
Paragraph B
The three‑year‑olds were very successful. After they observed the small toy being placed behind the miniature couch, they ran into the room and found the large toy behind the real couch. But the two‑and‑a‑half‑year‑olds failed abysmally. They cheerfully ran into the room to retrieve the large toy, but most had no idea where to look, even though they remembered where the tiny toy was hidden in the miniature room and could readily find it there.
Paragraph C
Their failure to use what they knew about the model to draw an inference about the real room indicated that they did not appreciate the relation between the model and the room. I realised my memory study was instead a study of symbolic understanding and that the children’s failure might be telling us something about how and when children acquire the ability to understand that one object stands for another.
Paragraph D
The first type of symbolic object that infants and young children master is the picture. No symbols seem simpler to adults, but infants initially find pictures perplexing. The problem stems from the duality inherent in all symbolic objects: they are real in themselves and also representations of something else. A few years ago I became intrigued by anecdotes suggesting that infants do not appreciate this duality stories of a baby trying to pick up a depicted toy or fit a foot into a photograph of a shoe. We assumed such behaviour would be rare and therefore difficult to study.
Paragraph E
Fortunately we were wrong. We began testing infants’ understanding of pictures by putting a book of highly realistic colour photographs of individual objects in front of nine‑month‑olds. To our surprise, every child in the study reached out to feel or scratch the pictures. The confusion seems to be conceptual not perceptual. Infants can perfectly well perceive the difference between objects and pictures and given the choice they will choose the real thing. But they do not yet fully understand what pictures are and how they differ from real objects. However, when depicted objects bear little resemblance to the real thing ‑ as in a black and white drawing‑infants rarely explore them. By 18 months, babies have come to appreciate that a picture merely represents an object; instead of manipulating the paper, they point to pictures and name objects. Nevertheless, it takes several years for the nature of pictures to be completely understood.
Paragraph F
Studies have shown that, until the age of four, many children think that turning a picture of a bowl of popcorn upside down will result in the depicted popcorn falling out of the bowl.
Paragraph G
Pictures are not the only source of confusion for very young children. In a 11 third experiment, we brought a group of toddlers (18‑to‑30‑month‑old children) into a room containing a slide, a chair, and a toddler‑sized car The children played with these for a while. Then we secretly replaced each object with an identical miniature version. Most children attempted to perform the same actions with the miniature items that they had with the larger ones. Some tried to sit on the chair, others attempted to climb into the car. Interestingly, most of the children showed little reaction to their failed attempts. We think this probably reflects the fact that toddlers’ daily lives are full of unsuccessful attempts to do one thing or another.
Paragraph H
This confusion has implications for educational practice. Teachers everywhere use blocks or other objects to represent numerical quantity. However, if young children do not understand the relation between an object and what it represents, this could be counterproductive. To demonstrate this, we taught six‑and‑seven‑year‑olds a difficult subtraction problem using blocks.We taught an identical comparison group the same concept, but using pencil and paper. Both groups learned to solve the problems equally well, but the group using blocks took three times as long to do so.
Paragraph I
Dual representation also comes into play in many children’s books. Modern children’s books are often 3D, with features that encourage children to interact directly with the book itself, for example flaps that can be lifted to reveal pictures. Graduate student Cynthia Chong and I reasoned that these features might distract children from the information. Accordingly we used different types of book to teach letters to 30‑month‑old children. One was a simple old‑fashioned alphabet book with each letter accompanied by an appropriate picture. The other was a 3‑D version. The children using the traditional book subsequently recognised more letters than those using the 3‑D book.
Paragraph J
Presumably, the children could concentrate more easily with the plain 2‑D book, whereas with the other one they were distracted by the 3‑D activities. Less may be more when it comes to educational books for young children.
Questions
Questions 27‑32
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter in boxes 27‑32 on your answer sheet.
27 In the first paragraph, what did the children in the experiment have to do?
A spot the differences between a real room and a smaller version
B make a copy of a life‑sized room using small furniture
C hide a large toy in a tiny room
D locate a toy in a life‑sized room
28 What was the result of the first experiment?
A Both two‑and‑a‑half‑and‑three‑year‑olds completed the task successfully.
B Three‑year‑olds could mentally relate the two rooms they had been shown.
C Two‑and‑a‑half‑year‑olds could relate more closely to the toys as symbols.
D Two‑and‑a‑half‑year‑olds had poorer memory than three‑year‑olds.
29 In the fourth paragraph, what does the writer say about children and pictures?
A Infants are unable to understand that pictures serve a double purpose.
B Young children may understand pictures more readily than adults.
C It is very unusual for babies to try and pick up items in pictures.
D Adults should encourage children to look at pictures from an early age.
30 In the third experiment, what did the writer notice about the reactions of the toddlers?
A They often behaved in an unpredictable way.
B They were only comfortable performing very familiar tasks.
C They became frustrated when they could not achieve a task.
D They behaved the same whether they were successful or not.
31 What did the experiment involving a mathematical problem suggest about children’s learning?
A Children are able to understand complex concepts at an early age.
B Children younger than seven cannot learn using pencil and paper alone.
C Using blocks can make it harder for children to learn new concepts.
D Teachers should try using blocks to teach mathematics to lower level students.
32 What does Deloache conclude about the results of her and Chong’s experiment?
A Children’s books should be more interactive.
B 2‑D‑books should contain realistic images.
C Simpler books may be better learning tools.
D 3‑D books help weaker students to progress.
Questions 33‑35
Complete each sentence with the correct ending.
Choose the correct ending and move it into the gap.
The test involving‑9‑month‑old‑babies attempted to find out ________ 33
The third experiment revealed ________ 34
The maths experiment was designed to assess ________ 35
A that a three‑year‑old may still expect an image to perform a real task.
B how quickly children can learn the alphabet.
C the best age for children to begin school.
D the effectiveness of symbolic objects as teaching tools.
E whether young children are puzzled by pictures.
F that young children expect tiny objects to function in the same way as life‑sized ones.
Questions 36‑40
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage?
In boxes 36‑40 on your answer sheet, write
YES
NO
NOT GIVEN
36 The results of the first experiment revealed unexpected information.
37 Infants react the same way to both drawings and photographs.
38 Toddlers are used to failing in many of the tasks they try to perform.
39 The confusion of symbols and real objects has little significance for educational practice.
40 Children enjoy reading 3D‑books more than 2D‑books.
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