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Further Comments on the Attribute Availability Hypothesis of Children's Category Learning
Author(s) -
Ward Thomas B.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8624.1990.tb02805.x
Subject(s) - psychology , concept learning , cognitive psychology , phenomenon , developmental psychology , social psychology , epistemology , philosophy
Kemler Nelson raises several important issues regarding children's category learning in her commentary on Ward, Vela, and Hass. The points of agreement in our positions concern the extreme complexity of the phenomenon. The points of disagreement that are addressed in this reply concern Kemler Nelson's assertions that ( a ) children are, in general, holistic processors, ( b ) a holistic processing model provides a better account of children's category learning than the attribute availability model, and ( c ) that Ward et al. have overestimated the extent of analytic processing and underestimated the extent of holistic processing by young children. All of these points are challenged in the present paper.