Abstraction and use of categorical and physical information: a developmental study.
Children in nursery school and Grades 1, 3, and 5 (total N equal to 75) were asked to match one of two picture choices to a previously presented stimulus. Two types of matches were based upon the physical information in the stimuli and two types of matches were based upon categorical information. A comparison of mean reaction time for the two physical matches indicated a large change between nursery school and Grade 1 in the ability to use specific visual information in the matching of pictures of familiar objects. The efficiency of matches based upon category information showed a steady increase across the ages tested. Category matches based upon pictorial information were as efficient as category matches based upon verbal information  for all groups.
D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007257:Information Theory; D008297:Male; D011930:Reaction Time; D014796:Visual Perception