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Related Experiment Videos

Matching and naming objects by shape or function: age and context effects in preschool children.

Gedeon O Deák1, Shanna D Ray, Anne D Pick

  • 1Department of Cognitive Science, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla 92093-0515, USA. deak@cogsci.ucsd.edu

Developmental Psychology
|July 2, 2002
PubMed
Summary

Preschoolers

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Development
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Language Acquisition

Background:

  • Understanding abstract principles is crucial for cognitive development.
  • Preschoolers' ability to classify objects based on abstract rules like shape or function is a key developmental milestone.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how preschoolers (3- and 4-year-olds) use abstract principles to classify and label objects.
  • To determine the developmental progression in adopting shape versus function as a basis for object categorization.

Main Methods:

  • Three experiments involved instructing 3- and 4-year-olds to match objects based on either shape or function.
  • Varied conditions were used to test 3-year-olds' ability to adopt a function-based matching rule.
  • Supplemental memory and verbal tasks assessed abstract comparison abilities and word-labeling conventions.

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Main Results:

  • Four-year-olds readily adopted both shape and function rules for matching.
  • Three-year-olds consistently followed shape rules but struggled with function-based rules, even with repeated prompts.
  • While 3-year-olds found abstract function comparison difficult, they demonstrated learning that object labels are often based on function.

Conclusions:

  • Preschoolers' ability to adopt abstract generalization rules develops with age, showing increased flexibility in 4-year-olds compared to 3-year-olds.
  • Three-year-olds' difficulty with abstract function matching highlights a developmental lag in this specific cognitive skill.
  • Despite challenges in abstract function comparison, preschoolers are acquiring knowledge about the functional basis of object labels, indicating progress in language acquisition and conceptual understanding.