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Gutheil G, Gelman SA. Children's use of sample size and diversity information within basic-level categories. J Exp Child Psychol. 1997;64(2):159-74doi: 10.1006/jecp.1996.2344.
Gutheil, G., & Gelman, S. A. (1997). Children's use of sample size and diversity information within basic-level categories. Journal of experimental child psychology, 64(2), 159-74. https://doi.org/10.1006/jecp.1996.2344
Gutheil, G, and Gelman, S A. "Children's use of sample size and diversity information within basic-level categories." Journal of experimental child psychology vol. 64,2 (1997): 159-74. doi: https://doi.org/10.1006/jecp.1996.2344
Gutheil G, Gelman SA. Children's use of sample size and diversity information within basic-level categories. J Exp Child Psychol. 1997 Feb;64(2):159-74. doi: 10.1006/jecp.1996.2344. PMID: 9120379.
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Elsevier Science

J Exp Child Psychol. 1997 Feb;64(2):159-74. doi: 10.1006/jecp.1996.2344.

Children's use of sample size and diversity information within basic-level categories.

Journal of experimental child psychology

G Gutheil, S A Gelman

Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA 98416-0230, USA. [email protected]

PMID: 9120379 DOI: 10.1006/jecp.1996.2344

Abstract

Category-based induction involves making decisions about some member(s) of a category based on information concerning other category members. Recent studies indicate that although adults make use of information concerning sample size (larger samples are a stronger basis of inference than smaller samples) and sample diversity (more diverse samples are better than more homogeneous samples) when making category-based inductive judgments, children do not do so until age 8 or 9 and even then to only a limited degree. This research however, was conducted at the superordinate level of categorization, and it is unclear if general difficulty with this category level may have masked children's ability to use size and diversity, or if these results represent a more entrenched conceptual difficulty in using this information. We therefore conducted three studies that investigate both 8- and 9-year-olds' and adults' ability to use sample size and diversity within basic level categories. Our results indicate that children's difficulty with this information is independent of category level, and may be based on preferences for other strategies concerning category membership and perceptual similarity.

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