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Contribution of the priming paradigm to the understanding of the conceptual developmental shift from 5 to 9 years of age
Author(s) -
Perraudin Sandrine,
Mounoud Pierre
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
developmental science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.801
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1467-7687
pISSN - 1363-755X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2009.00847.x
Subject(s) - categorical variable , psychology , priming (agriculture) , task (project management) , developmental psychology , concept learning , cognitive psychology , statistics , mathematics , botany , economics , biology , germination , management
We conducted three experiments to study the role of instrumental (e.g. knife–bread ) and categorical (e.g. cake–bread ) relations in the development of conceptual organization with a priming paradigm, by varying the nature of the task (naming – Experiment 1 – or categorical decision – Experiments 2 and 3). The participants were 5‐, 7‐ and 9‐year‐old children and adults. The results showed that on both types of task, adults and 9‐year‐old children presented instrumental and categorical priming effects, whereas 5‐year‐old children presented mainly instrumental priming effects, with categorical effects remaining marginal. Moreover, the magnitude of the instrumental priming effects decreased with age. Finally, the priming effects observed for 7‐year‐old children depended on the task, especially for the categorical effects. The theoretical implications of these results for our understanding of conceptual reorganization from 5 to 9 years of age are discussed.