One hundred and sixty subjects from five age levels ranging from 3 to 20 years compared photographs of dogs (e.g., two different Great Danes or a Great Dane and a Doberman pinscher) and judged whether they were similar or different. (Author/MP)

Examined 7- and 9-month-olds' ability to categorize cats and dogs as separate from one another. Found that both groups formed a cat category that included novel cats but excluded a dog and an eagle, and formed a dog category that included novel dogs and a novel cat but excluded an eagle. Results mirrored those of 3- to 4-month-olds with visual…

Three studies were conducted to investigate reasons for the difficulties that children under 5 years of age experience with class inclusion tasks. The studies tested the claim that such tasks have a structural complexity that is beyond the children's processing ability. In experiment 1, class inclusion tasks were compared with other classification…

This study examined the ability of preschool children to process and use conceptual category information in a disrcimination learning task. A total of 60 boys and girls between the ages of 2 1/2 and 4 years completed a 3-choice discrimination learning task. On each of 12 trials, a child was presented with three magazine photographs: one of an…

This study investigated the effects of two stimulus manipulations (spatial distinctness and number of dimensions) on the performance of 24 kindergartners and 24 fifth graders in (1) tasks requiring distributed attention and (2) tasks requiring selective attention. Results suggest that kindergartners attempt to use one processing mode (distributed…

The relation between conceptual development and visual exploratory behavior was investigated by engaging eighty-four 3-, 4-, and 8-year-old children in a picture-sorting task to determine whether they would spontaneously and readily discriminate between animate and inanimate objects. (Author/JMB)

Two experiments explored the nature of perceptual development in 5- and 10-year olds and adults. The primary finding was that preassessed salience significantly influenced 5-year olds' ability to discriminate two objects, while salience did not affect 10-year olds' or adults' response times. Results showed that salience effects in perceptual…

For this study, the second in the cross sectional series, based on the Conceptual Learning and Development (CLD) model, assessment batteries were developed to determine each child's level of attainment and related use of the concepts "equilateral triangle,""cutting tool,""noun," and "tree." Batteries were…

For this study, the second in the cross sectional series, based on the Conceptual Learning and Development (CLD) model, assessment batteries were developed to determine each child's level of concept attainment and also the related use of the concepts "equilateral triangle,""cutting tool,""noun," and "tree."…