Generic language facilitates children's cross-classification

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• 作者：Simone P. Nguyen^a ; ^{nguyens@uncw.edu} ; A. Gelman^b
• 关键词：Cross-classification ; Generic language ; Categorization ; Generalization
• 刊名：Cognitive Development
• 出版年：2012
• 期刊代码：17_08852014
• 类别：psy
• 出版时间：April-June, 2012
• 卷：27
• 期：2
• 页码：154-167
• 文件大小：464 K

摘要

Four studies examined the role of generic language in facilitating 4- and 5-year-old children's ability to cross-classify. Participants were asked to classify an item into a familiar (taxonomic or script) category, then cross-classify it into a novel (script or taxonomic) category with the help of a clue expressed in either generic or specific language. Experiment 1 showed that generics facilitate 5-year-olds鈥?and adults鈥?cross-classification when expressed at an appropriate level of generalization (e.g., 鈥渇oods鈥?and 鈥渂irthday party things鈥?, whereas Experiment 2 showed that such effects disappeared when labels were at an inappropriate level of generalization (e.g., 鈥減izzas鈥?and 鈥渂alloons鈥?. Experiments 3 and 4 offered additional controls. Taken together, the findings demonstrate that language can guide and direct children's multiple categorizations.