Abstraction and use of categorical and physical information: a developmental study

Children in nursery school and Grades 1, 3, and 5 (total N equal to 75) were asked to match one of two picture choices to a previously presented stimulus. Two types of matches were based upon the physical information in the stimuli and two types of matches were based upon categorical information. A comparison of mean reaction time for the two physical matches indicated a large change between nursery school and Grade 1 in the ability to use specific visual information in the matching of pictures of familiar objects. The efficiency of matches based upon category information showed a steady increase across the ages tested. Category matches based upon pictorial information were as efficient as category matches based upon verbal information for all groups.