Journal
COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
Volume 59, Issue 3, Pages 244-274Publisher
ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1016/j.cogpsych.2009.05.001
Keywords
Cognitive development; Natural kinds; Social categories; Concepts; Categorization; Culture; Gender; Race; Naive biology; Artifacts
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Funding
- NICHD [HD-36043]
- NIMH [T32 MH-63057-03]
- Center for the Education of Women at the University of Michigan
- University of Michigan Rackham Dissertation Research
- University of Michigan Predoctoral Fellowship
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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 5-78) 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. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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