The proposed research is designed to determine the factors which lead to analytic versus holistic modes of processing in family- resemblance concept learning. The factors examined include participant, task and stimulus characteristics. Studies conducted during the first year of the project examine whether children are more likely to be analytic in processing the parts of objects (e.g. the nose of a face) than their qualities (e.g. the color of a geometric form). The studies also examine whether different types of parts (e.g. those with a function known to the child) are more salient than others. Most of the studies will include kindergarten, second- and fifth-grade children as well as college students. All of these studies will involve a learning phase and a transfer phase to determine the type of learning which has taken place. The studies for the second year focus on a variety of situations in which the learner interacts with exemplars but without explicit instructions to learn category membership. These incidental tasks will be designed to orient the individual toward various aspects of the stimuli. The assumption is that these orienting factors rather than the learner's intent-to-learn will determine the mode of processing observed. The third year is concerned with determining the features of exemplars which adults (parents) point out to children during category learning. The studies will involve observations of parents interacting with their children with naturalistic materials (e.g. children's books) as well as the stimulus materials created for the first two years of the study. Presumably the parts of objects which children select on their own will be related to those which their parents tend to highlight for them in naturalistic learning situations.
| Ward, T B; Vela, E; Hass, S D (1990) Children and adults learn family-resemblance categories analytically. Child Dev 61:593-605 |
| Ward, T B (1990) Further comments on the attribute availability hypothesis of children's category learning. Child Dev 61:611-3 |
| Ward, T B; Vela, E; Peery, M L et al. (1989) What makes a vibble a vibble? A developmental study of category generalization. Child Dev 60:214-24 |
