The Development of Categorization
Condition: Cognition Disorder; Healthy
MeSH terms: Cognition Disorders
Study type: Observational

Summary: 
      It is commonly believed that objects in the world can be categorized in at least three
      different ways or levels. The three levels are basic, superordinate, and subordinate.
      Previously it was believed that basic categorization presents a cognitive (mental) advantage
      to children's development. However, recent studies on superordinate categorization has
      challenged this belief.

        1. <TAB>Items in superordinate are grouped according to functional purpose, even though
           they may not share any similarities in how they look (perception). For instance, desks,
           chairs, and beds do not appear similar but they can be group together in the
           superordinate category of furniture.

        2. <TAB>Items in basic categorization share similarities in function and in perception. For
           instance, chairs can be considered as a basic category. Chairs can share functional and
           perceptual similarities with many kinds of chairs but are readily distinguished from
           other types of furniture like beds or desks.

        3. <TAB>Subordinate categories are subsets of basic categories. For instance, kitchen
           chairs, desk chairs, and high chairs, are all within the basic category of chairs. Each
           one is very similar in it's function to the others but is definitely discriminable.

      This study was developed to investigate the development of categorization at all three levels
      by using a design in which children between the ages of 1 and 3 years are tested for
      categorization at all three levels with sets of objects from the same domain (such as vehicle
      or fruit). Researchers plan to chart when infants develop categorization at the basic,
      subordinate, and superordinate levels over the two-year period.<TAB>...
    

Detailed description: 
      The major objective of this research is to better understand the functional significance of
      object categorization in early development. The proposed work is designed to examine the
      emergence of organization in toddlers internal representations of real-world categories such
      as furniture and fruit. Representation, in this capacity, refers simply to stored information
      that can influence later behavior. Categorization refers to the treatment of discriminable as
      equivalent in some way.

      Even young infants appear capable of categorizing diverse sets of discriminable patterns and
      objects, and can form internal representations of such bounded collections. Much less is
      known, however, about changes leading from this basic capacity to the highly structured
      concepts that are characteristics of children s and adults category knowledge. The present
      research is designed to characterize the course of these changes between infancy and
      childhood.

      The primary research strategy to be used consists of analyzing toddlers examination and
      manipulation of familiar objects that are similar within adult-defined categories than
      between such categories. The organization and temporal structure of children s actions on the
      objects will be coded and analyzed to infer the similarity relations that are perceived among
      of each stimulus set.
    

Keywords: Cognition; Infancy; Perception