Cross-Classification and Category Representation in Children's Concepts

• Published in: Developmental psychology Vol. 43; no. 3; pp. 719 - 731
• Main Author: Nguyen, Simone P
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Psychological Association 01-05-2007
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Age; Association Learning; Behavior; Biological and medical sciences; Categorization; Category Systems; Child; Child Development; Child, Preschool; Children; Children & youth; Choice Behavior; Classification; Classification (Cognitive Process); Cognition & reasoning; Cognitive Development; Concept Formation; Conceptualization; Developmental psychology; Discrimination Learning; Dual classification; Experimentation; Experiments; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Human; Humans; Language Development; Male; Pattern Recognition, Visual; Psychology, Child; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Reference Values; Schema; Social research; Vocabulary; Young Children; category representation; cross-classification; categorization; category accessibility; Human; Preschool age; Accessibility; Cognition; Conceptual development; School age; Classification; Cognitive development; Categorization; Child
• ISSN: 0012-1649; 1939-0599
• DOI: 10.1037/0012-1649.43.3.719

Items commonly belong to many categories. Cross-classification is the classification of a single item into more than one category. This research explored 2- to 6-year-old children's use of 2 different category systems for cross-classification: script (e.g., school-time items, birthday party items) and taxonomic (e.g., animals, clothes). The results of Experiments 1 and 2 show that by a young age, children are able to cross-classify items into both category systems. Experiment 3 found that children mentally represent cross-classified items as simultaneously belonging to both taxonomic and script categories. Experiment 4 found that children often, but do not always, spontaneously activate taxonomic and script cross-classifications. Overall, the results demonstrate that from an early age children form and use both taxonomic and script categories for cross-classification.