Do children profit from looking beyond looks? From similarity-based to cue abstraction processes in multiple-cue judgment.
The authors investigated the ability of 9- to 11-year-olds and of adults to use similarity-based and rule-based processes as a function of task characteristics in a task that can be considered either a categorization task or a multiple-cue judgment task, depending on the nature of the criterion (binary vs. continuous). Both children and adults relied on similarity-based processes in the categorization task. However, adults relied on cue abstraction in the multiple-cue judgment task, whereas the majority of children continued to rely on similarity-based processes. Reliance on cue abstraction resulted in better judgments for adults but not for children in the multiple-cue judgment task. This suggests that 9- to 11-year-olds may have defaulted to similarity-based processes because they were not able to employ a cue abstraction process efficiently.
von Helversen
Bettina
B
Center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany. Bettina.vonhelversen@unibas.ch
Mata
Rui
R
Olsson
Henrik
H
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D002648:Child; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D003210:Concept Formation / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D004777:Environment; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D055815:Young Adult