Ward T B, Vela E, Hass S D
Department of Psychology, Texas A&M University, College Station 77843.
Child Dev. 1990 Jun;61(3):593-605.
3 experiments examined the modes of processing used by children and adults in learning family-resemblance categories. The materials were cartoon faces (Experiments 1 and 2) and bugs (Experiment 3) divided into categories that possessed no single defining attributes, but rather several characteristic attributes that were each partially predictive of category membership. The categories were structured so that a holistic mode of processing in which the individual did not selectively weight any given attributes could have led to success. Nevertheless, preschoolers (Experiments 2 and 3), first and third graders (Experiment 1), and adult college students (all experiments) all exhibited primarily analytic modes of learning that consisted of single- and dual-attribute approaches. Although the proportion of analytic learners among the preschoolers was lower than among the adults in Experiment 3, in no case were holistic modes of learning evident. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for young children's apparent relative success in learning natural categories. It is suggested that children's success in learning real-world categories may be based, in part, on an interaction between a basically analytic processing style and natural category structures that provide many partially informative attributes.
3项实验考察了儿童和成人在学习家族相似性类别时所采用的加工模式。实验材料为卡通脸（实验1和实验2）和昆虫（实验3），这些材料被分为不同类别，这些类别没有单一的定义属性，而是有几个特征属性，每个属性都能部分预测类别归属。类别结构的设置使得个体不选择性地权衡任何给定属性的整体加工模式可能会导致成功。然而，学龄前儿童（实验2和3）、一年级和三年级学生（实验1）以及成年大学生（所有实验）都主要表现出由单属性和双属性方法组成的分析性学习模式。虽然在实验3中，学龄前儿童中分析性学习者的比例低于成年人，但在任何情况下都没有明显的整体学习模式。将根据这些结果对幼儿在学习自然类别方面明显的相对成功所产生的影响进行讨论。研究表明，儿童在学习现实世界类别方面的成功可能部分基于基本的分析加工方式与提供许多部分信息属性的自然类别结构之间的相互作用。
