5.3 Conceptual Development
Views
Concepts change with sha
Modern
Keil
Defining features
Characteristic features
Procedure
"essential aspects of a category"
"common but not essential
aspects of a category"
Eg. Grandma => woman who
has a child that has a child
Embedded Concepts
Eg. gray hair, wears glasses
1⃣ Asked elementary-school children to define terms
2⃣ Analysed responses in terms of defining features and characteristic features
Questions that defy characteristic
features but not defining features
Results
younger children focus
on characteristic features
ability to focus on defining
features improves with age
interrelated or embedded in causal frameworks about how the world works
Eg. Animals, freedom
Susan Carey
Results
10 year olds
4 year olds
have a theory of what animals are based on biological properties (eating, breathing, offspring)
based on appearance and behaviour
focus on parts that are common
to familiar animals to recognise as an animal
attribute animalistic behaviour to familiar animals 🐶 and not unfamiliar animals 🐌
little understanding of eating, defecating,
having babies as biological processes
Procedure
click to edit
never attribute animal properties to non-animals
Criticisms
understanding of animals
may begin earlier
influenced by experience
(eg. having a pet worm)
babies have some naive theories
of what animals are
Animal / Human
properties
studied 14 month olds
Results
infants were able to consistently
match human activities to human toys