Children's Use of Schematic Concepts in Free Classification Tasks: A Closer Look

The Written Picture Pairing Test was administered to 238 schoolchildren in Grades 2 through 6. A comparison of pairing responses across the five grades supported earlier findings that the use of abstract or taxonomic categories increases during early school years. The increase did not, however, correspond to a decrease in the use of perceptible categories; instead, results suggested a developmental progression in which schoolchildren move from using schematically based modes of organization to using both schematic and taxonomic modes. Perceptible categories were virtually ignored as a basis for pairing when color was removed as a stimulus property; at all ages, children focused more on what pictures meant than on how they appeared.