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Thinking Awareness, Psychology in Education
Joan N. Brunner, Project Director
Herbert Zimiles Abstract The purpose of this study was to explore variations in preschoolers understanding of different aspects of mental activity. It was predicted that preschoolers as young as age 3 are developing the ability to recognize thinking and remembering as internal f unctions of the mind, and that the mind is continually thinking and remembering. Forty children (mean age months = 54.2, mean age years = 4.51) were observed and questioned about seeing, hearing, remembering and thinking while playing three games with th eir caregivers. The children were evaluated in the three different situations on the total appropriate responses. Regression and graphical analyses of the children's appropriate responses were compared to their ages by months as well as years. The resul ts indicated that preschoolers are developing their ability to recognize that thinking and remembering are internal functions of the mind. The results also suggest that they are developing an awareness that their and other people's minds are continually thinking and remembering. This ability is evident as early as age 3. Correlational analyses indicated that the ages of the children are positively correlated with their ability to recognize thinking and remembering as internal functions of the mind. Caregiver Implications It is important that CGs do not underestimate preschoolers' thinking awareness. As Olson and Astington (1993) note, CGs need to pay close attention to how children intend their actions and words to be interpreted, and help them to become more conscious o f the force of their actions and utterances. Preschoolers should be encouraged to answer "why" questions about these same subjects because new information is not just to be learned, but also interpreted. A mutual understanding of thinking and rememberin g is important for both the CGs and children to correctly interpret each others actions and words. To assist preschoolers in this enterprise, CGs must learn to treat children as thinkers whose opinions count.
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