The ability of 31- to 36-month-old children to act in accordance with rules was assessed in 2 slightly different experiments using sorting tasks and knowledge tasks. Taken together, the results of both experiments imply a relatively rapid, age-related change culminating in the ability to systematically execute rules that require access to extant…

Three studies explored 2- to 4-year-olds' ability to categorize objects based on novel underlying causal power. Children saw that a "blicket" would set off a machine and participated in categorization, induction, and association tasks. Results demonstrated that even 2-year-olds easily learn about an object's new causal power and…

Eighteen-month-olds' spatial categorization was tested when hearing a novel spatial word. Infants formed an abstract categorical representation of support (i.e., placing 1 object on another) when hearing a novel spatial particle during habituation but not when viewing the events in silence. Infants with a productive spatial vocabulary did not…

This study assessed the predictive utility of a classification-based model versus a representational memory-based model to account for the effects of verbal training on the acquired equivalence and distinctiveness paradigms. (Author/JMB)

The category item production task was used to obtain child norms and to investigate two alternative types of category bias reputedly shown by young children: (a) underinclusion of appropriate items; and (b) overinclusion of inappropriate items. Preschool and grade school children (n=144) were asked to produce verbal responses to four category…

The stability of standard score and probability method sociometric group assignments was examined over a two-year period with an initial group of 334 fifth graders. Popular, neglected, and controversial groups evidenced low stability of group members over intervals of approximately 1, 6, 12, 18, and 24 months. (Author/RH)

Provides a developmental framework for the classification of psychopathology in children and highlights the contributions that such classifications may have toward the understanding of normal development. Specific attention is given to the concepts of continuity and normality and their implications for the manner in which developmental…

A total of 14 psychotic children with a mean age of nine years, two months, and 14 normal children having a mean age of six years, four months, were compared in terms of structural level and functional abilities on classification and seriation tasks. (Author/RH)

The use of category organization in free recall was studied in elementary school students. Trained subjects showed higher recall. Several indices of organization were compared and evaluated. (ST)

Addresses the respective roles of prototypes and specific exemplars in children's categorization behavior. The ability of children and adults to abstract and recognize figural prototypes was examined using a prototype-plus-distortions design. (Author/RH)

When preschool children think of objects as organized into collections (e.g., forest, army) they solve certain problems better than when they think of the same objects as organized into classes (e.g., trees, soldiers). Present studies indicate preschool children occasionally distort natural language inclusion hierarchies (e.g., oak, tree) into the…

Conducted among children of three different age levels, Experiment I tested the hypothesis that categorization ability is acquired in the following order: basic, superordinate, subordinate. Experiments II and III tested among adults the hypothesis that the greater the differentiation of categories at a given hierarchical level, the earlier…

Two tasks were used to evaluate the relationship between concept usage and the organization of knowledge in semantic memory for 7-, 11-, 15-, and 18-year-old subjects. (JMB)

Seventy-four lower- and middle-class children aged 2 1/2, 3 1/2, and 4 1/2 years, who were successful at unidimensional sorting of two objects by either color or form, were given feedback for correct bidimensional sorting of three objects, two of which had been used in unidimensional testing. Results indicate that Piagetian centration is a task-…