児童の因果関係理解の発達について,第1報に続いて,同じ目的で二つの調査を行った。一つは前回と同じ被検者に対して,簡単な実験演示を行い,その観察事項を説明させる方法をとり,他は第1報と同じく,質問紙による調査を農村小学校の児童を対象として行った。それぞれの結果を第1報と比較して,問題の相違,被検者の相違にも拘らず,類似の傾向が見られた。即ち小学校児童の因果関係の理解のしかたは,主として現象論的,論理的,機械論的説明が行われている。また理解度は,'低学年,中学年,高学年の3段階に亘って律動的な発達をとげていることが解った。しかもその各段階目体も静的な過程でなくて,動的発達の過程であることが明かとなった。各段階の発達の力動的様相を明らかにすることは今後の課題として残された。全体として,第1報で報告し,推定したことについて,根本的な修正を加える必要はなかった。

This is the 2nd report by this author concerning the development of children's understanding of causal relations. In order to confirm the points which had been proposed in the 1st report, the author took two groups of pupils as subjects, from rural and urban areas. One group, of 118 elementary school children of both sexes including all the grades from the 1st to the 6th, had to answer the causal reasons of 8 phenomena which were demonstrated to them. The other group, from rural school which was composed of 204 children were asked to explain the causes of natural phenomena or events which were rather familiar to them. The answers were classified according to the categories 'which were proposed by J. Piaget. Each answer was scored by 5-points scale. The scores for all the pupils were calculated and compared by consecutive grades, and sexes. Although the methods of tests were different for each group, the results showed close resemblances to each other. It was found that the three stages of development in the understanding of causal relations by children, which was proposed by the author in the 1st report, and which, he thought, seemed to harmonize the two seemingly incompatible standpoints of J. Piaget and of J. M. Deutsche, and that boys in most cases aptid to be exceeding than girls even though there is no statistical significance.