认知与发展心理学研究室知识库

摘要：理解存储流动问题对理解各种系统的运行十分关键。典型的存储流动问题包括浴缸中水的累积问题，大气二氧化碳的累积问题，个人体重的累积问题等等。大量研究发现人经常不能正确理解存储流动问题。如在告诉被试进入和离开某商店人数随时间变化的情况后，要求被试回答商店中什么时候人数最多（累积峰值问题），什么时候人数最少（累积谷值问题）时，被试更倾向于使用启发相关式思维方式，即认为累积峰值发生在净流入最大时，累积谷值发生在净流出最大时。既往研究表明，提高动机、减少认知负荷、提高对背景的熟悉性、改变问题的呈现方式都不能提高对存储流动问题的理解。提供系统动力学培训、提高数学能力等知识性训练的方法虽然能促进对这一问题的理解，但提升仍然有限。

本研究提出一种新的观点：存储流动问题错误的主要原因是问题的呈现方式引发个体了对错误整体的关注，而如果使用恰当的图形线索引导被试关注正确的整体，则会引发正确的心理模型，改善对该问题的理解。本文通过两个研究探究引导关注正确整体的图形线索是否能够对存储流动问题的理解起到改善作用。研究一使用商店人数问题，将128名被试随机分配到图形线索组（N =64）和原始呈现组(N =64)，结果发现：在峰值问题上，图形线索的改善达到边缘显著；在谷值问题上，改善作用达到显著性水平。研究二进一步探讨该效应是否适用于不同的任务背景。结果发现，图形线索组（N =59）在回答浴缸、资金和商店三个任务的峰值问题上都显著优于原始呈现组（N =60），在累积谷值问题上对资金任务的促进作用也达到显著。研究初步验证了图形线索的促进作用。本文进一步讨论了该研究的理论和实践意义。

Abstract：Understanding the stock-flow problem is critical to understanding how various systems work. Typical stock-flow problems include the accumulation of water in a bathtub, the accumulation of atmospheric carbon dioxide, and the accumulation of personal weight. A number of studies have found that people often fail to understand stock-flow problems correctly. For example, after telling the number of people entering or leaving a store changed over time, participants were asked to answer when was the largest number of people in the store (the accumulative peak question) and when was the fewest people in the store (the accumulative valley question), they were more inclined to use correlation heuristic thinking, that was to say, the accumulative peak occurred when the net inflow was maximum, and the accumulative valley occurred when the net outflow was maximum.Previous studies have shown that increasing motivation, reducing cognitive load, increasing familiarity with context, and changing the way problems are presented do not improve understanding of stock-flow problems. Knowledge training methods such as system dynamics training and mathematical ability training can promote understanding of this problem, but the improvement is still limited.

This study proposes a new viewpoint: the main reason for the failure of stock-flow problems is that the presentation of the problem causes the individual to pay attention to the wrong whole. If the subjects are guided to pay attention to the right whole with appropriate graphical cues, the correct mental model will be triggered and their understanding of the problem will be improved. In this paper, two studies were conducted to explore whether graphical cues guiding to the correct whole can improve the understanding of stock-flow problems. In study 1, 128 subjects were randomly assigned to the graphical cues group (N =64) and the original presentation group (N =64). Results showed that for the accumulative peak question, the improvement effect was marginally significant; for the accumulative valley question, the improvement effect reached a significant level. Study 2 further explored whether this effect was applicable to different task contexts. Results showed that the graphical cues group (N =59) was significantly superior to the original presentation group (N =60) in answering the accumulative peak questions of the three tasks of bathtub, capital and store, and also significantly promoted the capital task in the accumulative valley question. The study preliminarily verified the promotion effect of graphical cues. This paper further discussed the theoretical and practical significance of this research.