Abstract:

With the rise of the "second generation cognitive sciences", the issue of metaphor has received the attention of psychology and linguistics. In terms of the research on the vertical spatial metaphor of moral concepts, most studies have explored the psychological reality and its influence on perception, not the development of the vertical spatial metaphor of moral concepts. In view of this, this study addressed the cognitive psychological processing of modern Chinese metaphors. From the perspective of development psychology, taking a group of children as participants. To investigate when in development the vertical spatial metaphor for moral concepts arises, whether children can through concrete vertical spatial dimension to understand the abstract moral concept, what features and regularities of development it has. It is very important for revealing the developmental laws of children's metaphorical thinking and exploring the development of children's moral cognition. Two experiments investigated the development of children's use of the vertical spatial metaphor for the representation of moral concepts: morality is spatially up and immorality is spatially down. In Experiment 1, a total of 93 preschool children within three age ranges took part in the study. A 3 (age group: 3.9, 4.9, 5.8)×2 (picture type: moral, immoral)×2 (spatial position: upper, lower) mixed experimental design was used. The participant were asked to place pictures of familiar cartoon figures that exhibited good or bad qualities ("moral" and "immoral" pictures) into boxes printed above or below a stick figure. The results showed that the frequency with which they placed moral pictures in the upper box and immoral pictures in the lower box increased with age. In Experiment 2, a total of 96 school-age children in three grades were asked to place words representing moral and immoral concepts into boxes printed above or below a stick figure. A 3 (grade: second, fourth, sixth)×2 (word type: moral, immoral)×2(spatial position: upper, lower) mixed experimental design was used. The dependent variable was the number of times that the participants placed the moral and immoral words up and down. Results showed that participants in all three grades tended to place moral words in the upper box and immoral ones into the lower box, and this tendency increased with age. The results indicated that: (1) the development of the vertical spatial metaphor appears to follow a pattern: 4-5 years is the initial formation stage, 7-9 years is the stage in which it strengthens, and 11-13 years is the period in which it develops almost to the adult level.(2) the metaphor that moral is up and immoral is down is embodied, meaning that it gradually forms through projection of the perceptual experience of up-down space. (3) the vertical spatial metaphor of children's moral concepts develops gradually as age increases, and both age and cognitive development play key roles in this development. All in all, metaphor is not only a kind of rhetorical device, but more importantly, a way of thinking and forming concepts. The present research explored the law of children's cognitive development by using conceptual metaphor. This work is still blank in the domestic and international research fields, and it is very meaningful to explore. The development of children’s vertical spatial metaphors of moral concepts is initially investigated in this study and the results are entirely new. Finally, this study discussed the mechanism by which the vertical spatial metaphor for moral concepts forms from the perspective of embodied cognition. The metaphor that moral is up and immoral is down gradually forms through projection of the perceptual experience of up-down space.

摘要：

本研究考察了不同年龄阶段儿童道德概念垂直空间隐喻的认知发展。实验1采用图片迫选法，要求学前儿童将道德人物图片和不道德人物图片分别放到垂直空间的上方或下方；实验2采用词汇迫选法，要求学龄儿童将道德词和不道德词分别放到垂直空间的上方或下方。结果发现，儿童均倾向于把道德材料放到上方而把不道德材料放到下方；而且这种趋势随着年龄增长愈发明显。研究结果证明幼儿阶段已开始出现“道德是上，不道德是下”的空间隐喻，其发展规律为：4~5 岁初步形成，7~9 岁基本形成，11~13 岁已接近成人水平。