Effects of Category Size on Young Children's Categorization

Although most previous studies on categorization of artificial stimuli were performed mainly with adult subjects, there has been an increasing concern about young children's categorization. Studies on children's categorization can be roughly classified into two research areas : categorization mode and prototype formation. The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of category size on young children's categorization modes (holistic vs. analytic) and prototype formation in a category generalization task of schematic faces with five dimensions varying in two values. In this experiment 5 - and 6 -yr. old children were given the tasks with three and six sample exemplars and then they were required to classify the sample exemplars, prototypical exemplars, and the test exemplars. The results showed that (a) there were no significant effects of category size on the prototype formation, (b) the analytic mode was used more frequently in the six exemplars task than in the three exemplars task, and (c) in the six exemplars task the prototype formation depended on correct classification of the sample exemplars. Discussion was made with reference to the stimulus, the task, and the general developmental trend (from holistic to analytic modes)