Slot-filler and Conventional Category Organisation in Young Korean Children

Abstract

Previous research has found that young English-speaking children rely on event schema knowledge in forming object categories and using them in verbal tasks. The present study examined category knowledge in young Korean children. In Experiment 1, 5and 8-year-olds produced category instances under either slot-filler or taxonomic instructions. Five-year-olds produced more instances in the slot-filler condition, whereas 8-year-olds produced more in the taxonomic condition. In Experiment 2, children were presented with a list of words composed of either slot-filler category items or taxonomic category items for either free or cued recall. For the 5-year-olds, slot-filler categories led to superior recall, higher levels of organisation, and shorter latencies than taxonomic categories in both recall conditions, and led to increased recall when script cues were provided. These findings support the view that slot-filler categories represent a closer match to the categorical structures of the young child's semantic organisation than taxonomic categories, and that slot-filler categories are combined into larger taxonomic categories as the child develops and learns.

Slot-Filler and Taxonomic Organization: The Role of Contextual Experience and Maternal Education

“…The category generation task has elicited consistent findings across studies (K. Nelson & Nelson, 1990;Peña et al, 2002;Yu & Nelson, 1993), including ours. Despite the fact that these four studies examined children of distinct language background, including English-and Korean-speaking monolingual children and bilingual children who spoke different first languages (i.e., Spanish and Mandarin), the recurring finding was that children who are five years of age produce comparable numbers of items in taxonomic and slot-filler conditions in this free recall task.…”

“…In other words, the older children demonstrated a taxonomic advantage over slot-filler organization because they were able to integrate different slot-fillers when responding in the taxonomic condition (K. Nelson & Nelson, 1990). These findings were later replicated among five-and eight-year-old Korean-speaking monolingual children (Yu & Nelson, 1993).…”

“…The current study was therefore the first to document the taxonomic advantage in children as young as six. Although it is tempting to suggest that bilingual children may demonstrate an earlier taxonomic advantage than their monolingual peers, it should be noted that previous studies with monolinguals (K. Nelson & Nelson, 1990;Yu & Nelson, 1993) did not included six-and seven-year-old children. Had they done so, an earlier shift may have been discovered.…”

“…To better capture the time frame of this developmental shift, we sampled children who were respectively five, six, and seven years of age. In addition, we focused mainly on the category of animal because this category is less culturally and linguistically constrained than clothes and food (Yu & Nelson, 1993). For instance, in Mandarin there are types of clothing that do not exist in English (e.g., 旗袍, a traditional Chinese dress with a fitted shape and a high collar).…”

“…For instance, in Mandarin there are types of clothing that do not exist in English (e.g., 旗袍, a traditional Chinese dress with a fitted shape and a high collar). Also, food items that are typical for a particular setting in one language may not be so in another language (Peña et al, 2002;Yu & Nelson, 1993). Indeed, Yu and Nelson (1993) found that Korean-speaking monolinguals generated fewer items for clothes and food categories than English-speaking monolinguals and attributed these findings to cultural difference.…”