An Apple is More Than Just a Fruit: Cross-Classification in Children's Concepts

• Published in: Child development Vol. 74; no. 6; pp. 1783 - 1806
• Main Authors: Nguyen, Simone P., Murphy, Gregory L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing 01-11-2003; Blackwell Publishers; Blackwell; Blackwell Publishing Ltd
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Age; Age Factors; Age groups; Biochemistry; Biological and medical sciences; Breakfasts; Categorization; Child; Child development; Child, Preschool; Childhood; Children; Children & youth; Choice Behavior; Classification; Cognition; Cognition & reasoning; Cognitive psychology; Concept Formation; Conceptual development; Developmental psychology; Discrimination Learning; Empirical Articles; Experimentation; Female; Food; Food - classification; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Ice cream; Language Development; Male; Meats; Organization; Pattern Recognition, Visual; Problem Solving; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Set (Psychology); Snacking; USA; Young children; Human; Preschool age; Mental representation; Lexicon; Cognition; School age; Language; Conceptualization; Language development; Cognitive development; Categorization; Child; Food
• ISSN: 0009-3920; 1467-8624
• DOI: 10.1046/j.1467-8624.2003.00638.x

This research explored children's use of multiple forms of conceptual organization. Experiments 1 and 2 examined script (e.g., breakfast foods), taxonomic (e.g., fruits), and evaluative (e.g., junk foods) categories. The results showed that 4- and 7-year-olds categorized foods into all 3 categories, and 3-year-olds used both taxonomic and script categories. Experiment 3 found that 4- and 7-year-olds can cross-classify items, that is, classify a single food into both taxonomic and script categories. Experiments 4 and 5 showed that 7-year-olds and to some degree 4-year-olds can selectively use categories to make inductive inferences about foods. The results reveal that children do not rely solely on one form of categorization but are flexible in the types of categories they form and use.