| Abstract: | 兒童透過敘事表達自己，並藉此與外界溝通互動。敘事時除語彙的掌握外，對事件的詮釋與關聯方式，亦為成功表達的關鍵要素。所謂敘事中事件的關聯方式，可以是對單一事件情境的描繪，亦可以是相關事件的串連呈現；可能是局部場景的處理，亦可能關係到故事整體架構。認知發展學者曾就各個認知場域，探討局部與整體處理能力的特性。舉凡視覺感知、圖形辨識、繪圖實驗乃至自閉症患者於視覺判斷以及音樂感知方面的異常，均與局部以及整體的處理能力有關。在敘事中事件關聯性的詮釋上，局部與整體的處理能力，亦扮演不容忽視的角色。在針對事件關聯能力發展的跨年齡層研究中，Berman 與Slobin（1994）提到敘事者對事件之關聯性的詮釋能力與時俱進。他們觀察到敘事焦點由局部走向整體的發展模式，並將孩童敘事中關聯事件之能力的發展分為四個階段，其前三階段著重局部情節之處理，而第四階段則聚焦於故事整體架構的呈現。Karmiloff-Smith（1984）曾提及：隨發展階段之不同，敘事者對故事之局部細節與整體架構的處理能力間會互有消長。本人於2006 年所收錄長期觀察的語料中發現：敘事中對故事細節的呈現與語彙豐富性，以及對故事整體架構的掌握，此兩種能力的發展上是可分離的(dissociable)。我們也觀察到敘事活動中，局部與整體處理能力彼此間的牽制。故事情節除了時序性與邏輯性的連繫外，因果關係亦為連貫故事情節的重要線索。是以，關聯事件的詮釋能力與因果推理的能力關係密切。Berman 與Slobin 不僅強調因果推論對敘事中事件關聯詮釋的重要性，更進一步將此因果推論細分為局部情節間的因果關係，以及維繫故事整體脈絡的因果推論。因果推理的功夫，須以理性思考的能力為後盾。認知發展心理學的研究對理性邏輯推理能力的發展，以及局部與整體的處理能力之差異，著墨甚多。因此，對認知發展理論的瞭解，有助於我們對敘事中事件關聯能力發展脈絡之掌握，亦可藉此一窺語言與認知間錯綜複雜的關係。文獻上對敘事中事件關聯能力的發展，多針對以西方語言為母語的兒童為研究對象。為能與西方關於此一議題之跨年齡、跨語言的研究發現，作更貼近的比較，以檢視其對孩童串連事件能力發展之論述的適切性，筆者擬依循Berman 與 Slobin 的架構，同樣以5 歲、9 歲孩童及成人為採樣對象。我們以Frog, where are you?為題材，收集跨年齡層的敘事表達語料，以探究敘事者在局部與整體兩個不同層面上如何呈現事件關聯性，並檢視不同年齡層的敘事者，其事件關聯方式上質與量的差異。在量的方面，我們以年齡及性別為獨立變項，以事件關聯方式為依變項，檢視各獨立變項對事件關聯能力發展的影響，並分析各變項間的互動關 2 係。在質的方面，我們透過實際語料探討不同年齡層的敘事者如何串連事件，以及事件間的因果關係如何呈現。此外，我們擬參酌Piaget 的認知發展階段論、 Karmiloff-Smith 的問題處理三段論、Trabasso 與Sperry 的因果網路架構以及認知心理學上的相關論述，來進一步解析敘事中事件關聯能力的發展與認知發展間的關係，以期一窺孩童敘事中事件關聯能力發展上的豐富樣貌。如此，不僅可為國內兒童在這個研究場域中留下珍貴語料，亦利於將研究結果作跨語文的對應比較。並可藉此修正前人所提之理論，增進理論內涵的完整性，亦可藉本計畫之實證研究強化理論之普遍性。
Children express themselves and build up connections with others through narratives which consist of not only individual events but also a network of associated events. The proper cognitive and linguistic abilities are required to make a successful interpretation of the interconnections among events. Hence, an investigation of how young children relate narrative events may lead us to explore the nature of the relationship between language and cognition. Developmental psychologists endeavor to probe the local and global processing abilities in various cognitive domains. They believe that such abilities not only involve in visual perception and pattern recognition, but also motivate different levels of representations in drawing experiments. Moreover, the impairments in such abilities are responsible for the biases in Autism’s visual judgment and musical perception. Regarding relating narrative events, in their cross-sectional and cross-linguistic study, Berman and Slobin (1994) present a four-phased developmental framework to explain children’s advances in relating narrative events. Based on the framework, they suggest a local-to-global progression in children’s ability for relating events. Karmiloff-Smith (1984) suggests that the development of global organization may sometimes be at the expense of the local descriptive details and lexical richness. Similarly, in an earlier longitudinal study, Sah (2007) observes a trade-off between globally coherence-motivated organization and locally detail-motivated linguistic expressions during children’s narrative development. Causal inferences are crucial for providing appropriate links between narrative events and thus for enhancing the coherence of narratives. A variety of studies in developmental psychology try to explore children’s development of the ability in making causal inferences. With such knowledge in cognitive development, we can better explain children’s advances in relating narrative events and understand the complex relation between language and cognition. In light of these findings, the present project aims to explore Mandarin-speaking children’s development in the ability for relating narrative events. In a cross-sectional protocol, we provide quantitative and qualitative analyses of children’s narrative production on Frog, where are you? Based on Berman and Slobin’s framework, we collect narrative production from 5-year-olds, 9-year-olds, and adults. Quantitatively, we divide the ways in which children relate events into several categories. Two independent factors, age and gender, are considered. Their main effects and interactional effects on the development in connecting narrative events are assessed. Regarding qualitative analyses, we try to demonstrate how children relate narrative events with respect to local and global structures, and attempt to examine the applicability of Berman and Slobin’s four-phased developmental framework, and the validity of Karmiloff-Smith’s Three Phase Model. We will also endeavor to discuss the interrelatedness between children’s advances in relating narrative events and their developing knowledge in making causal inferences. To this end, related explanations in cognitive psychology are considered in our discussion. The outcome of the project, thus, will not only advance our understanding of children’s development in relating narrative events, but also provide empirical evidence for examining the validity of related theories in this field. |
