The emergence of class concept formation in preschool children

The ability to classify complex visual forms was studied in three, four, and five year old children. Each subject performed two tasks based on two classes of computer-generated stimuli. The oddity task required the identification of the odd form in a set of three eight-sided polygons. The sequential task required the assignment of each sequentially presented single polygon to one of two classes. No feedback was given. The results revealed a marked developmental change in classification ability occurring between about 4 1/2 and 5 1/2 years of age. The oddity task appeared to be a more sensitive test of class concept formation.Arts, Faculty ofPsychology, Department ofGraduat