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Development of Subordinate‐Level Categorization in 3‐ to 7‐Month‐Old Infants
Author(s) -
Quinn Paul C.
Publication year - 2004
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.1467-8624.2004.00712.x
Subject(s) - categorization , psychology , representation (politics) , beagle , perception , preference , developmental psychology , saint , linguistics , cognitive psychology , medicine , mathematics , history , neuroscience , philosophy , statistics , politics , political science , law , art history
Visual preference procedures were used to investigate development of perceptually based subordinate‐level categorization in 3‐ to 7‐month‐old infants. Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrated that 3‐ to 4‐month‐olds did not form category representations for photographic exemplars of subordinate‐level classes of cats and dogs (i.e., Siamese vs. Tabby, Beagle vs. Saint Bernard). Experiments 3 though 5 showed that 6‐ and 7‐month‐olds formed a category representation for Tabby that excluded Siamese and a category representation for Saint Bernard that excluded Beagle, but they did not form a category representation for Siamese that excluded Tabby or a category representation for Beagle that excluded Saint Bernard. The findings are consistent with a differentiation‐driven view of early perceptual category development from global to basic to subordinate levels.