title: By land or by sea: the role of perceptual similarity in infants' categorization of animals.
abstract: In 3 experiments, the authors used an object-examining task to investigate the role of perceptual similarity in infants' categorization. In Experiment 1, infants were familiarized with a set of either perceptually similar or perceptually variable exemplars from 1 category and tested with novel exemplars from both categories. Ten-month-olds did not respond to the category in either condition, and 13-month-olds responded categorically in both conditions but somewhat differently in the 2 conditions. Experiment 2 showed that when 10-month-olds were familiarized with similar exemplars but not with variable exemplars, they responded to the categorical distinction when given tests with typical exemplars. Experiment 3 established that 10-month-olds could differentiate among the exemplars. These results suggest that the perceptual similarity of the exemplars influences infants' recognition of categorical distinctions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Iowa, Iowa City 52242-1407, USA. lisa-oakes@uiowa.edu
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Oakes
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Coppage
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dingel
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention; D003210:Concept Formation; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D011340:Problem Solving; D002666:Psychology, Child