ERIC Number: EJ750200
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2006-Nov
Pages: 12
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0012-1649
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Infants Flexibly Use Different Dimensions to Categorize Objects
Ellis, Ann E.; Oakes, Lisa M.
Developmental Psychology, v42 n6 p1000-1011 Nov 2006
A sequential-touching task was used to investigate whether 14-month-old infants can rapidly change how they categorize a set of objects, recognizing new groupings of objects they had previously categorized in a different way. When presented with a collection of objects that could be categorized by shape (balls vs. blocks) or material (soft vs. hard), infants who showed stable performance on a superordinate-level categorization task or who had larger receptive vocabularies exhibited flexible categorization; they categorized the objects by material as well as by shape. Infants who rarely responded to the superordinate-level categorization task or who had smaller receptive vocabularies, in contrast, categorized primarily by shape. Thus, flexible categorization is related to development in other cognitive domains.
Descriptors: Infants, Classification, Sequential Approach, Dimensional Preference, Pattern Recognition, Cognitive Measurement, Shift Studies, Comparative Analysis, Vocabulary Skills, Performance Based Assessment, Child Development, Tactual Perception
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Early Childhood Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A