The contrast between holistic and differentiated perception of multidimensional stimuli is reconceptualized. Hypotheses about the experiential status of dimensions within holistic perception were tested as explanations of children's general perceptual mode and of adults' integral mode. Three levels of dimensional status are described. (Author/RD)

The developmental trend from overall-similarity to dimensional-identity classifications is explained by a quantitative model. The model provides good qualitative fits to the extant data. Three experiments examining classifications in 120 2- to 8-year-olds and in 20 undergraduates support specific new claims of the model. (TJH)