Variations in Children's Concepts by Age and Category

NELSON, KATHERINE. Variations in Children's Concepts by Age and Category. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1974, 45, 577-584. The composition of 9 natural language categories (animals, clothes, colors, flowers, fruit, furniture, insects, tools, vegetables) in recall from long-term semantic memory at 2 ages (5 and 8 years) was analyzed. Considerable variation among the categories in size and composition was found by both quantitative indices and qualitative analyses. Age changes occurred primarily in an increase in number of responses given, and these appeared to be related to the increasing articulation and hierarchical expansion of the categories. At both ages there was internal agreement on typical category members and apparent reliance on functional definitions of category membership. Category boundaries were flexible for both groups although there was evidence of increasing boundary definition with increasing age.