幼児のカテゴリー化に及ぼす共通特徴情報教授の効果

抄録

In this experiment which used "The Novel Label Task", 48 children aged five to six years were given a novel word for a target item (i.e. a dog). They were also given the instruction that animal could be classified to a specific category according to either; the feature of the internal parts of the body which relates specifically to the "animal" (e.g. "This has a spleen inside its body.") or the accidental feature which does not relate specifically to the "animal" (e.g. "This is hurt."). As a result, the categorization at superordinate level (animal) in the subjects who were given both instructions was facilitated. The results suggest that the recognition of features common to a category play an important role in the categorization at superordinate level. The categorization, however, in the subjects who were given the features on the internal parts of body was slightly greater than in the subjects who were given the accidental features. These findings suggest that the categorization at superordinate level in young children is affected by the recognition of features common to a category and the knowledge by which they able to understand the specific domain of the "animal".