title: Remembering kinds: new evidence that categories are privileged in children's thinking.
abstract: What are the representations and learning mechanisms that underlie conceptual development? The present research provides evidence in favor of the claim that this process is guided by an early-emerging predisposition to think and learn about abstract kinds. Specifically, three studies (N=192) demonstrated that 4- to 7-year-old children have better recall for novel information about kinds (e.g., that dogs catch a bug called "fep") than for similar information about individuals (e.g., that a particular dog catches a bug called "fep"). By showing that children are particularly likely to retain information about kinds, this work not only provides a first empirical demonstration of a phenomenon that may be key to conceptual development but also makes it apparent that young children's thinking is suffused with abstractions rather than being perceptually-based and concrete.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 61820, USA. acimpian@illinois.edu
authors.forename: Andrei
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cimpian
authors.forename: Lucy C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Erickson
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003210:Concept Formation / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D011581:Psychological Tests; D011897:Random Allocation; D013850:Thinking / Q000502:physiology*