The Privileged Status of Category Representations in Early Development

Cimpian, Andrei

doi:10.1111/cdep.12166

Cited by 16 publications

(24 citation statements)

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“…For example, preschoolers readily draw broad, category‐wide inferences after being exposed to only a single member of a novel category (Brandone & Gelman, , ). Preschoolers have also been shown to be highly motivated to acquire information about categories—preferring learning facts and explanations about categories to learning analogous information about individuals (Cimpian, ). Young children also rely on category knowledge over individuating information when making inferences about the future behavior of individual category members (Berndt & Heller, ; Taylor, ).…”

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confidence: 99%

Changes in Beliefs About Category Homogeneity and Variability Across Childhood

Brandone

2016

Child Development

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Effective category-based induction requires understanding that categories include both fundamental similarities between members and important variation. This article explores 4- to 11-year-olds' (n = 207) and adults' (n = 49) intuitions about this balance between within-category homogeneity and variability using a novel induction task in which participants predict the distribution of a property among members of a novel category. Across childhood, children learned to recognize variability within categories-showing increasing sensitivity to the role of property type and domain in constraining inferences. Children below the age of 6 showed evidence for a domain-general assumption that categories are homogeneous-generalizing properties broadly to 100% of category members. These studies support important developmental changes in category representations that may influence category-based induction.

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confidence: 99%

Changes in Beliefs About Category Homogeneity and Variability Across Childhood

Brandone

2016

Child Development

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“…Moreover, they argue that young children are biased to expect information that is intentionally communicated to them to be relevant, important, and generalizable. Indeed, a number of empirical studies have shown that even infants process information differently and form difference expectations when evidence is deliberately manifested for them (Futó et al, 2010;Egyed, Király, & Gergely, 2013;Yoon, Johnson, & Csibra, 2008;) and by early childhood they treat that information as more important and generalizable in a variety of ways (Bonawitz et al, 2011;Butler & Markman, 2012, 2016Butler et al, 2015;Schmidt et al, 2016;Vredenburgh et al, 2015).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Seeing novel properties or actions demonstrated intentionally, with cues suggesting the pedagogical intent to transmit important infomation, leads children to make inductive generalizations about that evidence that are stronger and more resistant to counter-evidence (Butler & Markman, 2012b, 2016 Hernik & Cisbra, 2015), leads them to construct radically different conceptions of novel categories (Butler & Markman, 2014;Futó, Téglás, Csibra, & Gergely, 2010;Kovács, Téglás, Gergely, & Csibra, 2016;Yoon, Johnson, & Csibra, 2008), and leads them to infer that Pedagogy and counterevidence 6 the demonstrated action is the only (Bonawitz, Shafto et al, 2011) or normatively correct (Schmidt, Butler, Heinz, & Tomasello, 2016; Vrendenburgh, Kushnir, & Casasola, 2014) way to act. Taken together, this evidence suggests that children's sensitivity to whether or not actions are carried out with pedagogical intent towards the child shapes the inferences children make about the evidence those actions produce.…”

Section: Children's Use Of Social Cues To Guide Inductive Inferencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…But inference from minimal evidence presents an inductive problem, in which children need to figure out what of all the novel information they encounter provides good bases for generalization, and what information should be dismissed or ignored as irrelevant, as well as the scope of the generalization that should be made if one is warranted (Goodman, 1965). Although our cognitive architecture appears to rely heavily on reasoning in terms of kinds and categories (Cimpian, 2016;Gelman, 2003;Markman, 1989), such reasoning may be insufficient to gauge, in the moment and on its own, the importance of a novel piece of minimal evidence.Recent research has shed light on children's ability to use others as a source of knowledge to help guide such inductive inferences in the face of uncertainty. Specifically, this research has explored the ways in which children employ their social cognitive skills-their Pedagogy and counterevidence 5 ability to understand the intentions behind others' actions-in order to gauge the importance of information being conveyed by knowledgeable others.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Look again: Pedagogical demonstration facilitates children's use of counterevidence

Butler¹

2018

Preprint

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In learning about the world, we must not only make inferences based on minimal evidence, but must deal with conflicting evidence and question those initial inferences when they appear to be wrong. In three experiments (N=96), we found that in some cases young children only revise their causal beliefs when conflicting evidence is explicitly demonstrated for them.Four-and 5-year-old children inferred a rule about what objects had causal powers, and then saw evidence conflicting with that initial inference. Critically, the conflicting evidence was produced either instrumentally and intentionally, or demonstrated communicatively and pedagogically.Only when evidence was explicitly demonstrated for them did children revise their initial hypothesis and use a subtle clue to infer the correct rule.Keywords: belief revision; categorization; pedagogy; social cognition; conceptual development Pedagogy and counterevidence 3 Look again: Pedagogical demonstration facilitates children's use of counterevidenceAs humans, we live in a world of unfathomable uncertainty, yet assume that within that noise there are signals that will help us derive meaning and order. We search for meaningful patterns that help explain the structure of the world (Cimpian & Salomon, 2014), and we both strive to and succeed in identifying those patterns and using them to organize our knowledge, actions, judgments, and decisions across a wide variety of contexts (Gelman, 2003;Gelman & Wellman, 1991;Keil, 1989;Markman, 1989). And yet, as should be expected when drawing uncertain inferences from minimal data, much of the time the initial inferences that we make are wrong. We infer that the earth is flat, that the sun orbits the earth, that invisible entities determine everyday events, that moving objects have a hidden force inside them.Given that the evidence available to us is insufficient to ensure accuracy, and frequently leads to incorrect conclusions and common misconceptions, the capacity to revise our initial inferences based on of new and conflicting evidence is critical to constructing a coherent understanding of the world. And though this is undoubtedly true throughout the lifespan, it is especially true for children forming the initial causal theories that will frame their subsequent learning. Even very young children are sensitive to surprising or unexpected evidence, at least when it presents a clear conflict (Legare, 2012;Stahl & Feigenson, 2015). But relevant counterevidence may often be subtle and easily overlooked unless there is reason to think it might be particularly important. In making inferences, children use others as a source of knowledge to help guide inductive inferences in the face of uncertainty and to gauge the importance of new information. The current research aims to bring this work to bear on the critical process of hypothesis revision in the face of counterevidence. We asked whether children Pedagogy and counterevidence 4 might be more likely to make use of counterevidence in revising their initial hypotheses, when...

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“…At least by age 4, children use this sensitivity to guide their inductive inference process. Pedagogical demonstration of evidence leads children to make inductive generalizations that are stronger and more resistant to counterevidence (Butler & Markman, 2012b, 2016Hernik & Csibra, 2015). It also leads them to construct radically different conceptions of novel categories, for example, organizing their notion of category membership on the basis of deeper, semantic, or functional information rather than shared perceptual features (Butler & Markman, 2014;Fut o et al, 2010;Kov acs, T egl as, Gergely, & Csibra, 2016;Yoon et al, 2008;Yu & Kushnir, 2016).…”

Section: Children's Use Of Social Cues To Guide Inductive Inferencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Look Again: Pedagogical Demonstration Facilitates Children’s Use of Counterevidence

2020

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In learning about the world children must not only make inferences based on minimal evidence, but must deal with conflicting evidence and question those initial inferences when they appear to be wrong. Four experiments (N = 144) found that young children were significantly more likely to revise their initial inferences when conflicting evidence was explicitly demonstrated for them. Four-and five-year-old children saw deterministic evidence about which objects had causal powers, and then saw counterevidence conflicting with that initial pattern. Critically, the conflicting evidence was either demonstrated communicatively and pedagogically, or produced in an intentional but nonpedagogical manner. Only when evidence was explicitly demonstrated for them did children revise their initial hypothesis and use a subtle clue to infer the correct rule. We thank Ariel Horn, Kendra Soh, and Erica Zippert for assistance with data collection and coding, and Andrei Cimpian for helpful feedback on a previous version of this manuscript.

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The Privileged Status of Category Representations in Early Development

Cited by 16 publications

References 59 publications

Changes in Beliefs About Category Homogeneity and Variability Across Childhood

Changes in Beliefs About Category Homogeneity and Variability Across Childhood

Look again: Pedagogical demonstration facilitates children's use of counterevidence

Look Again: Pedagogical Demonstration Facilitates Children’s Use of Counterevidence

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