The development of children's knowledge structures: events, slots, and taxonomies.
Seventeen preschool (age range 2; 10-3;6), 26 kindergarten (age range 5;5-6;7), and 26 fourth-grade (age range 9;5-10;5) children's knowledge structures were examined with a word association task and a match-to-sample picture task to determine whether or not children used slot-filler categories as a mediating structure between event-based and taxonomic knowledge structures, as proposed by Nelson (1985, 1986). In general, preschool children were able to provide event-based, but not slot-filler or taxonomic, relations; kindergarten children were able to provide event-based or slot-filler relations, but very few taxonomic relations; and fourth-grade children were able to provide all three relations. These findings support Nelson's hypothesis that taxonomic knowledge structures are derived from event-based knowledge structures with the aid of slot-filler categories.
Sell
M A
MA
Department of Psychology, Memphis State University, TN 38152.
D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003210:Concept Formation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007804:Language Development; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011578:Psycholinguistics; D012660:Semantics; D014825:Vocabulary; D014936:Word Association Tests