We examined whether inductive reasoning development is better characterized by accounts assuming an early category bias versus an early perceptual bias. We trained 264 children aged 3 to 9 years to categorize novel insects using a rule that directly pitted category membership against appearance. This was followed by an induction task with…

Two experiments with third to sixth grade children were undertaken to test three predictions derived from the assumption that children may fail to solve union problems because addition of classes is not implied when classes to be combined overlap. (SB)

This research explores the way in which young children (5 years of age) and adults use perceptual and conceptual cues for categorizing objects processed by vision or by audition. Three experiments were carried out using forced-choice categorization tasks that allowed responses based on taxonomic relations (e.g., vehicles) or on schema category…

Describes four experiments that examined the ability of second- and fifth-grade children and college adults to use "extra-list" cues to retrieve episodic information from memory. Shows that effective cue use varied with both the "match" of cue and event classification, and with the associative structure of permanent memory.…

Preschool children who did not group a set of geometric stimuli according to complete similarity on a pretest were taught classification wither in a modeling or in a reinforcement condition. Modeling was found to be an effective means of teaching classification behavior. (ST)

Three preschoolers performed four sorts with stimulus cards--an untaught target sort and three directly taught alternating sorts considered to self-instruct the target performance. Accuracy increased first in the skill sorts and then in the untaught target sorts. All subjects generalized to new target sorts. Correct spontaneous self-instructions…

Contrasted four theories of natural language category acquisition by investigating the relation between category intensions and extensions in kindergarten children, second and fifth graders, and college students. Since none of the theories discussed could explain the pattern of results, an exemplar-based model was proposed. (RH)

Examined representation of pictorial exemplars of humans by 3- and 4-month olds. Results demonstrated an asymmetry regarding the exclusivity of categorical representations formed for humans and non-human animals. Categorical representations for humans included exemplar information, whereas categorical representation for non-human animals was based…

Taken together, these five studies using structurally different kinds of conceptual problems provide evidence for qualitative developmental and cultural differences in classificatory behavior. (Authors/CB)

Examines development of event memory by determining how personally experienced events with two types of structure were reported by kindergartners and adults. Events in making and playing with clay were organized causally and temporally. Results show that adults and children used a goal-based hierarchical structure to remember events, although use…

Describes three experiments that examined how children (4- to 11-year-olds) use their knowledge of the attributes of living things to infer whether particular objects are alive. (HOD)

Preschoolers were shown three objects in a given category. Each object had two attribute dimensions. A target category object with two different attributes was presented. Information provided to the children through verbal labeling or variations in a given category attribute both elicited induction of the defining attribute in the novel target…

Three studies tested the hypothesis that children's difficulty acquiring dimensional adjectives, such as big and little, is a consequence of how these words are used by adults. Findings indicated that children easily acquired novel dimension words when such words were used in a strictly comparative fashion, but had difficulty when also exposed to…

Two experiments investigated whether preverbal infants distinguish between humans and mammals. Study 1 found that 7-, 9-, and 11-month-olds distinguished humans from mammals in an object-examination task. Study 2 found that 7-month-olds but not 5-month-olds showed evidence for category discrimination with the 2-dimensional color photos of toy…

Describes three experiments that tested autistic children's nonverbal and verbal categorization abilities. Concludes that autistic children do not suffer a specific cognitive deficit in ability to categorize and form abstract concepts. (HOD)