ПРОСЛЕДЯВАНЕ НА КЛАСИФИКАЦИОННОТО ПОВЕДЕНИЕ НА ДЕЦА ОТ 3 ДО 6 ГОДИНИ
STUDY OF CLASSIFICATION BEHAVIOR IN CHILDREN FROM 3 TO 6 YEARS

Summary/Abstract: The classification behavior of children is different form the one of adults, it is not performed in taxonomic manner, and often it is guided by other factors. Many authors are trying to analyze this phenomenon, but in spite of the exceptionally abundant empirical results from a multitude of projects, their assertions are contradictory. This challenged our research interest and provoked the present investigation of the categorization of children at the age of 3 to 6, whereas in two experiments we studied what categories (super-ordinate, basic and relative) the children form. For the purposes of the study models of furniture and animals were used, amongst which there are developed basic categories of fish, birds, chairs and tables, as well as super-ordinate categories of furniture and mammals. Each multitude is composed of 6 representatives of given category, three of which are prototypic and three are untypical members of the respective categories. In one of the experiments furniture models are introduced to the children, and in the other — animal models. The method of free classification is used and the instruction imposes rather free and unguided behavior to the children, information is not given about the unfamiliar objects from the introduced animals and furniture, the different members of the categories are not named by their specific subordinate names. The children are required to put together these toys/animals, which they assess that have to be together in one place and in one group, thus forming several groups from the introduced toys/animals. The results show that 3- and 4-year-old children are more inclined to form super-ordinate categories, especially if they do not recognize the objects and often they refer to inessential features such as color and size, whereas 5 and 6-year-olds form basic categories, they categorize on the basis of essential features of similarity both furniture and animals. On the other hand, 3- and 4-year-olds sense the relations of similarity in the furniture category, whereas the children at the age of five and a half through six sort entirely on the basis of similar features.

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