How do children classify animate objects?
Cognitive researcher Dr. David Rakison and his students at Carnegie Mellon University study how children group objects and form categories. This study examined how infants – aged 14, 18, and 22 months – develop the ability to classify, an essential scientific reasoning skill. Children were allowed to play on their own with a set of eight toys. In one condition, the set consisted of unmodified toys: four ‘animals’ and four ‘vehicles’. In another condition, the toys were two ‘animals’, two ‘vehicles’, and several modified toys: two ‘animals with wheels’ and two ‘vehicles with legs’. Parents were instructed not to interfere with their children’s play during the experiment. The play sessions were recorded and researchers reviewed the film to determine the order in which children touched the toys. This study revealed that, when presented with the unmodified toys, children grouped the toys according to whether they were animals or vehicles. However, when presented with the modified toys toys
