To assess
S's way of responding, whether in an S-R or in a mediational manner,
S was given a conceptual sorting (CS) or a half-conceptual sorting (HCS) task consisted of several instances from two concepts. CS task became easier with age from 5, 9, to 21 years and HCS task was more difficult than CS at all age levels (Exp. I). It was concluded that
S's abiliy to take advantage of conceptual terms as mediators increases with age, even though kindergarteners can respond in a mediational manner. CS task was learned more rapidly than HCS by 6-year-old children, but no difference was found between the two tasks with 3-year-old children (Exp. II). These results were interpreted as indicating that younger children responded in an S-R manner and the older in a mediational one.
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