The effects of task comprehension on preschoolers' and adults' categorization choices

In experimental tasks in which subjects sort sets of objects with conflicting appearances and taxonomic relations, preschoolers often have been found to categorize according to appearance. The procedures used in past studies, however, may have biased preschoolers to attend to appearance instead of taxonomic relations. This possibility was examined in two experiments. In Experiment 1, children's preference for taxonomic- or appearance-based sorting was affected by both the training and the instructions they received. Adults in Experiment 1 were affected by instructions, but not by training. In Experiment 2 preschoolers sorted above chance according to the criterion for which they received training and instruction (taxonomic relations or appearance). Consistency data, children's justifications, and spontaneous labeling support the conclusions that training and instructions have a significant effect on children's preference to sort according to taxonomic relations or appearance, and that both criteria can be used systematically by children as young as four. Implications for task comprehension, flexibility, methodology, and education are discussed.