Social Interaction and Conceptual Capacities in Young Children ́s Category Learning

TAVERNA, A. S.; PERALTA, O. A.

Montreal - Quebec - Canada

Congreso; Society of Research on child Development. Biennial Meeting.; 2011

Society for Research in child Development

Most infants begin to form taxonomic systems when they acquire categories at basic levels (e.g. apple, dog). Later, children come to set their basic categories in relationship with higher-order ones forming the overarching superordinate concepts (e.g. food, animal, etc.). Recent research has examined the conceptual capacities which enhance children’s category understanding, such as comparison (Namy & Gentner, 2002) and inferential processes based on conceptual information (Booth & Waxman, 2005). Besides, other researchers suggested that in order to refine their category understanding beyond the conceptual capacities young children posses they might also need social and pragmatic support (Callanan; 1991; Nelson, 1985, 1996). In the present research we intended to test whether it is social interaction in combination with young children’s conceptual capacities what drives category learning. We suggested that by making comparisons or conceptual-based inferences in a context of instruction young children will be able to set basic-level objects in a supraordinate category. We tested this possibility in a pretest - posttest training study in which 3-year-olds´ performance was compared in two instruction conditions, comparison and conceptual-based, and two control conditions, information-only and feedback-only. Each type of instruction were a socially mediated scaffolding process in which an adult assessed children’s performance and offered contingent category information and feedback, but differed in the kind of category information provided: either comparison or conceptual based information. Sixty-five 3-year-old Spanish-speaking children from Argentina participated in this study, 24 girls and 32 boys (age range 2.7 to 3.5 years). We used a word extension & categorization task (Gentner & Namy, 1999) organized in 3 phases; pretest, training process and post-test. The results reveled that after training, children in the comparison condition selected more supraordinate responses (82.4%) than in the pretest (11.8%), MacNemar p < .001, and so did children in the conceptual-based condition: Posttest 81.3% vs. Pretest 18.8%, MacNemar p < .002. In contrast, there was no significant increase in supraordinate responses from pre- to post-test in the Information-only condition (27.8% vs. 44.4%, MacNemar p = 0.3) or in the Feedback-only condition (21.4% vs. 35.7%, MacNemar p = 0.5). In the posttest, only the groups who received instruction made more supraordinate responses than expected by chance (Figure 1). These results reflect that even though most of the children did not focus on superodinate categories in the pretest by themselves, only the groups who were assessed and prompted with contingent assistance in the form of category information and feedback (instruction) were more likely to set basic-level objects in a superodinate category in the posttest. In contrast, the groups who received only category information or feedback could not succeed in relating the basic-level objects in a higher kind of conceptual relation. Cognitive development is characterized by a process in which children’s individual cognitive activity is as crucial as is the interaction with their cultural, social and linguistic world. This study provides insights on how concept and category learning is a result of the interplay between children´s conceptual capacities and social interaction with supportive adults.