A developmental examination of the conceptual structure of animal, artifact, and human social categories across two cultural contexts

Marjorie Rhodes; Susan A. Gelman

doi:10.1016/j.cogpsych.2009.05.001

A developmental examination of the conceptual structure of animal, artifact, and human social categories across two cultural contexts

Marjorie Rhodes, Susan A. Gelman

Psychology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Previous research indicates that the ontological status that adults attribute to categories varies systematically by domain. For example, adults view distinctions between different animal species as natural and objective, but view distinctions between different kinds of furniture as more conventionalized and subjective. The present work (N = 435; ages 5-18) examined the effects of domain, age, and cultural context on beliefs about the naturalness vs. conventionality of categories. Results demonstrate that young children, like adults, view animal categories as natural kinds, but artifact categories as more conventionalized. For human social categories (gender and race), beliefs about naturalness and conventionality were predicted by interactions between cultural context and age. Implications for the origins of social categories and theories of conceptual development will be discussed.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	244-274
Number of pages	31
Journal	Cognitive Psychology
Volume	59
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogpsych.2009.05.001
State	Published - Nov 2009

Keywords

Artifacts
Categorization
Cognitive development
Concepts
Culture
Gender
Natural kinds
Naïve biology
Race
Social categories

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology
Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Developmental and Educational Psychology
Linguistics and Language
Artificial Intelligence

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10.1016/j.cogpsych.2009.05.001

Cite this

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title = "A developmental examination of the conceptual structure of animal, artifact, and human social categories across two cultural contexts",

abstract = "Previous research indicates that the ontological status that adults attribute to categories varies systematically by domain. For example, adults view distinctions between different animal species as natural and objective, but view distinctions between different kinds of furniture as more conventionalized and subjective. The present work (N = 435; ages 5-18) examined the effects of domain, age, and cultural context on beliefs about the naturalness vs. conventionality of categories. Results demonstrate that young children, like adults, view animal categories as natural kinds, but artifact categories as more conventionalized. For human social categories (gender and race), beliefs about naturalness and conventionality were predicted by interactions between cultural context and age. Implications for the origins of social categories and theories of conceptual development will be discussed.",

keywords = "Artifacts, Categorization, Cognitive development, Concepts, Culture, Gender, Natural kinds, Na{\"i}ve biology, Race, Social categories",

author = "Marjorie Rhodes and Gelman, {Susan A.}",

note = "Funding Information: Funding was provided by NICHD Grant HD-36043 to the second author, the Michigan Prevention Research Training Grant NIMH T32 MH-63057-03, a graduate student research grant from the Center for the Education of Women at the University of Michigan, a University of Michigan Rackham Dissertation Research Grant, and a University of Michigan Predoctoral Fellowship. Portions of these data were submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a doctoral degree at the University of Michigan. We are grateful to the children, teachers, and parents who participated in this research, as well as to Holly Keilch, Erica Ranade, and Amanda Karp for their assistance with data collection. We are also thankful to Sandy Waxman for input that motivated the design of the control condition presented in footnote 4 . ",

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A developmental examination of the conceptual structure of animal, artifact, and human social categories across two cultural contexts

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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