Basic-level category discriminations by 7- and 9-month-olds in an object examination task |
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Authors: | Mareschal Denis Powell Daisy Volein Agnes |
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Affiliation: | Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, School of Psychology, Birkbeck University of London, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, UK. d.mareschal@bbk.ac.uk |
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Abstract: | This study examines 7- and 9-month-olds' ability to categorize cats as separate from dogs, and dogs as separate from cats in an object examination task. In Experiment 1, 7- and 9-month-olds (N = 30) familiarized with toy cat replicas were found to form a category of cat that included novel cats but excluded a dog and an eagle. In Experiment 2, 7- and 9-month-olds (N = 30) familiarized with toy dog replicas were found to form a category of dog that included a novel dogs and a novel cat but excluded an eagle. These results mirror those of 3- to 4-month-olds tested with visual preference methods and stand in contrast to previously reported object examination results. Analyses of the distribution of features in the exemplars used to familiarize infants suggest that, like the 3- to 4-month-olds, the 7- and 9-month-olds in these studies form categories within the task, and on the basis of feature distributions. |
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Keywords: | Infancy Categorization Asymmetric exclusivity Basic-level categorization |
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