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Form-function correspondences in children's inference

N S McCarrell1, M A Callanan

  • 1University of California, Santa Cruz, USA.

Child Development
|April 1, 1995
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

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Children

Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Cognitive Science
  • Child Concept Formation

Background:

  • Perceptual similarity alone is often insufficient for concept formation.
  • Intuitive beliefs about the world provide a more structured basis for conceptual development.
  • Understanding how children link appearance to function is crucial for cognitive development.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate children's beliefs about the relationship between perceptual similarity and behavior.
  • To examine the role of form-function correspondences in early concept formation.
  • To determine how intuitive beliefs influence children's reliance on perceptual similarity versus labels for inference.

Main Methods:

  • Two studies were conducted with 2- and 4-year-old children.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Participants were asked to identify animals based on specific functions.
  • The influence of perceptual similarity and shared labels on inference was assessed.

    • Main Results:

    • Young children demonstrated sensitivity to form-function correspondences, linking an animal's form to its potential behavior.
    • Form-function beliefs motivated perceptual similarity, making it a sufficient basis for inference.
    • Motivated perceptual similarity was a more robust predictor of inference than shared labels for novel forms.

    Conclusions:

    • Children's intuitive beliefs about form-function correspondences are fundamental to their concept formation.
    • These beliefs shape how children use perceptual information and labels to understand the world.
    • Early cognitive development relies on linking an object's appearance to its functional capabilities.