When what's inside counts: Sequence of demonstrated actions affects preschooler's categorization by nonobvious properties.

Abstract

This study explores the role of a particular social cue-the sequence of demonstrated actions and events-in preschooler's categorization. A demonstrator sorted objects that varied on both a surface feature (color) and a nonobvious property (sound made when shaken). Children saw a sequence of actions in which the nonobvious property was revealed before (shake-first) or after (shake-last) categorization. Four experiments (N = 150) showed that both 4-year-olds (M(age) = 4.5 years) and 3-year-olds (M(age) = 3.5 years) shifted toward categorizing by nonobvious property after the shake-first sequence compared with the shake-last sequence (Experiment 1 and 4); 4-year-olds also generalized their categorization strategy to new objects (Experiment 2) and objects that were both labeled and categorized (Experiment 3). Results are discussed with regard to preschooler's ability to integrate social and pedagogical cues in category learning.