Critères de la réponse d' « identité » chez l'enfant

Four groups of children (22 subjects 5;6 years old, 32, 7 years, 19, 8;6 years, and 22, 12;6 years — median age) have been submitted to an experiment on the evolution of the criteria of the answer « the same ». Each subject performed the task four times. The task was to compare successively either 36 or 54, geometrical figures with two test figures, and to tell for each of them, if it was the same as one of the two models or not. The 36 (or 54) figures were all different, and corresponded to the set of possible combinations of 4 characteristics with several levels (such as shape, colour, etc.). Responses have been classified in accordance with the nature of the criteria chosen by the subjects to give the answer « the same ». Three main criteria have been used : 1) Identity : figures are asserted to be « the same » only when there is no perceptible difference between them. 2) Equivalence : the subject classifies the set of figures with regard to the shape, for instance, or to the shape and colour, etc., and tells that all the figures belonging to the same class are the same. 3) Proximity : the subject estimates the level of similarity of the figures, for instance through the number of their common characteristics and then tells that the figures which most similar to the model are the same as the model. The results show that identity and proximity responses are more frequent among the younger children (5;6 years) ; equivalence is more frequent (in all tasks) among 7 and 8;6 years old children. The 3 kinds of the children responses can be found among the children of 12;6, according to the fact that the subject considers the task as a classification task or as a perceptual comparison task.du nombre de leurs caractéristiques communes ; sont alors déclarées pareilles au modèle les figures qui leur ressemblent le plus. Les résultats montrent une prédominance des réponses d'identité et de proximité chez les enfants les plus jeunes (5;6 ans), suivie au contraire d'une prédominance marquée (dans toutes les épreuves) des réponses d'équivalence chez les sujets d'âges intermédiaires (7 ans et 8;6 ans) ; enfin, à 12;6 ans, on peut trouver les trois types de réponse, selon que le sujet interprète la tâche comme une tâche de classification ou une tâche de comparaison perceptive.Lepine D. Critères de la réponse d' « identité » chez l'enfant. In: L'année psychologique. 1966 vol. 66, n°2. pp. 417-446