The development of trait inference

This study charted the increase with age in trait inference and examined the accompanying organizational processes. The Ss, eight males and eight females at each grade level from kindergarten through sixth, were read descriptions of other children. These served as the basis for "spontaneous" and "suggested" inferences which they were then asked to justify. Trait inference appeared as early as kindergarten and increased in frequency up to sixth grade. This increase was explained as evidence of a greater capacity for hierarchical organization. The justifications were classified into five reasoning categories which were interpreted in terms of the social psychological literature and Piaget's (16, 17) "mother structures."