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On having complex representations of things: preschoolers use multiple words for objects and people
1Department of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37203, USA. deakgo@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu
Developmental Psychology
|May 23, 1998
Summary
Preschoolers can apply multiple labels to objects and people, showing advanced categorization skills. This ability is linked to their vocabulary size, not their understanding of appearance versus reality.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Development
- Developmental Psychology
- Linguistic Development
Background:
- Polynomy, the application of multiple names to a single entity, highlights flexible categorization.
- Understanding how children develop this ability is crucial for cognitive and language development theories.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate preschoolers' ability to apply multiple labels to objects and people.
- To explore the relationship between polynomy, receptive vocabulary, and appearance-reality understanding in young children.
Main Methods:
- Two experiments were conducted with children aged 3-5 years.
- Children labeled representational objects, verified labels for story characters, and completed appearance-reality and receptive vocabulary tests.
Main Results:
- Preschoolers reliably produced and accepted multiple labels for entities, including class-inclusive and overlapping categories.
- The number of labels produced correlated significantly with receptive vocabulary but not with appearance-reality performance.
Conclusions:
- Preschoolers demonstrate the capacity to represent entities as belonging to multiple categories.
- Findings suggest that vocabulary development, rather than appearance-reality distinction, is closely linked to the development of polynomy in early childhood.
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