Age Differences in Product Categorization

This article examines the bases children of different ages use to categorize products. Data from children ages 4 to 10 indicate that the use of perceptual attributes as a basis for categorizing products decreases with age, whereas the use of underlying attributes to categorize products increases with age. These findings provide a conceptual replications of earlier findings from developmental psychology. Moreover, the findings suggest that younger children's failure to consider underlying attributes can be traced to common types of processing deficits. Theoretical implications arising from these observations and directions for future research are discussed.