Induction from a single instance: Formation of a novel category

Abstract

This study examines whether preschoolers can use information from a known category to induce a characteristic attribute of a novel, contrasting category based on a single instance. We showed 32 four-year-olds three instances of a Given Category and one instance of a Target Category. These objects could vary along two attribute dimensions, such as color and shape. All instances of the Given Category shared identical values of one attribute (e.g., all were blue), but could have different values of the other attribute (e.g., a circle, a square, and a triangle). The single instance of the Target Category was different from the Given on both attribute dimensions (e.g., a red diamond). Children gave yes/no judgments as to whether additional objects were instances of the Target Category. There were two possible sources of information about the relevance of an attribute to classification: explicit (labeling) and implicit (variation in the Given Category). There were four conditions such that each source of information was either available or not. Both types of information were effective in eliciting inductions of the relevant kind of attribute and the characteristic value of this attribute in the novel category (explicit: p = .0004; implicit: p = .031). This suggests that children use an inductive bias that the instances of two related but distinct categories tend to be alike in the same way.