The animate-inanimate distinction in preschool children.

This study examined the development of the animate-inanimate (A-I) distinction in relation to other taxonomic categories in early childhood. Four- and 5-year-old children were administered two tasks measuring knowledge of taxonomic categories at various levels of inclusiveness. Across both matching-to-sample and object sorting tasks, the same pattern of categorization development was observed. Mastery of basic- and superordinate-level categories was demonstrated by 4 years of age. Although 5-year-old children performed above chance on A-I level categories, their abilities were not as mature as those of adults. Results of this study support and extend previous studies investigating the development of children's understanding of naïve biology during the preschool years.