Visual/ auditory processing and categorization preferences in 5-year-old children and adults
Résumé
This research explores adults' and 5 year-old children's use of perceptual and conceptual information for categorizing stimuli defined by visual and auditory cues. A forced-choice categorization task contrasting conceptual (i.e., schema-category) and non conceptual relations was used. Choices for conceptual objects were more frequent in adults than in children. They were also more frequent when alternative comparison objects were perceptually dissimilar (versus similar) to the target. Finally, in children (but not in adults), conceptual and perceptual responding depended on processing constraints. Results were discussed in terms of categorization preferences, depending on both task demands and processing capabilities.