
ERIC Number: EJ725377
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2005-Sep-22
Pages: 5
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0033-2933
EISSN: N/A
Are Torsos the Basis for Infants' Categorization of Cats Versus Dogs? A Reply to Vidic and Haaf (2004)
Quinn, Paul C.
Psychological Record, v55 n4 p663 Fall 2005
Vidic and Haaf (2004) questioned the idea that infants use head information to categorize cats as distinct from dogs (Quinn & Eimas, 1996) and argued instead that the torso region is important. However, only null results were observed in the critical test comparisons between modified and unmodified stimuli. In addition, a priori preferences for the paired test stimuli were not assessed, thus leaving open the possibility that novel category preferences for unmodified stimuli could have been blocked by spontaneous preferences for modified stimuli. Moreover, only a single cat-dog pairing and set of pig parts were used as test stimuli, thereby raising the issue of whether the infants could have been responding to idiosyncratic featural differences between particular exemplars rather than features diagnostic of whole categories. The evidence does not support the conclusion that the torso is important for infants' categorization of cats versus dogs.
Descriptors: Visual Stimuli, Infants, Classification, Infant Behavior, Animals, Visual Perception, Cognitive Processes
The Psychological Record, Kenyon College, Gambier, OH 43022. Web site: http://www.thepsychologicalrecord.org.
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A