The present study compared Japanese and U.S. preschool children’s knowledge of geometric shapes. The main goal was to explore if differences in shape-naming conventions in Japanese and English could explain differences in children’s understanding of geometric shapes. In ancient Chinese-based languages (e.g., Japanese), all standard 2D shapes (except for the rectangle) take the form of “[the number of angles]-angle-shape” (e.g., “five-angle shape” for pentagon). Not only are the shape labels relatively easy to construct, each label includes a description of a defining property within its name (i.e., the number of angles). In contrast, English shape names are relatively more complex and do not readily suggest defining shape characteristics. A language in which shape names are relatively easy to construct and communicate defining shape properties should boost children’s shape knowledge. Participants were 33 Japanese (M_age = 54.24 months, SD = 7.33 months) and 26 U.S. children (M_age = 55.58 months, SD = 8.03 months) between 42 and 68 months old. Children were asked to determine the validity of shape stimuli in a Shape Identification Task. They were also given a mental rotation task to control for spatial reasoning. Findings indicated that language-group membership and age, but not spatial reasoning, significantly predicted shape knowledge. As expected, Japanese children outperformed U.S. children in identifying geometric shapes. The findings suggest that labeling and describing geometric shapes using their defining properties could support children’s shape learning.

本研究比较了日本和美国学龄前儿童对几何形状的了解。主要目标是探索日语和英语形状命名约定的差异是否可以解释儿童对几何形状理解的差异。在古代汉语语言（例如日语）中，所有标准的二维形状（矩形除外）均采用“[角数]-角-形”的形式（例如，五边形为“五角形”） 。形状标签不仅相对容易构建，而且每个标签都在其名称中包含定义属性的描述（即角度的数量）。相比之下，英文形状名称相对更复杂，并且不容易暗示定义形状特征。形状名称相对容易构建和传达定义形状属性的语言应该可以提高儿童的形状知识。参与者包括 33 名日本儿童（M_年龄 = 54.24 个月，SD  = 7.33 个月）和 26 名美国儿童（M_年龄 = 55.58 个月，SD  = 8.03 个月），年龄在 42 至 68 个月之间。孩子们被要求在形状识别任务中确定形状刺激的有效性。他们还接受了一项心理旋转任务来控制空间推理。研究结果表明，语言群体成员资格和年龄，但不是空间推理，可以显着预测形状知识。正如预期的那样，日本儿童在识别几何形状方面优于美国儿童。研究结果表明，使用几何形状的定义属性来标记和描述几何形状可以支持儿童的形状学习。