Similarity and the development of rules

Gentner, Dedre; Medina, José

doi:10.1016/s0010-0277(98)00002-x

Cited by 380 publications

(355 citation statements)

References 107 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

335

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The parallels between color-priming and adjective-learning strengthen the proposal that comparison is a general psychological process (Gentner & Markman, 1997;Gentner & Medina, 1998) that facilitates learning across a wide range of tasks and domains of knowledge. Broadly speaking, comparison facilitates learning by supporting the abstraction of commonalities and rules and by providing a mechanism by which this knowledge can be applied to new situations (Gentner & Medina, 1998).…”

Section: The Role Of Comparison In Forming Categorical Event Represensupporting

confidence: 65%

“…This outcome suggests that the younger infants found it easier to detect similarities and differences between the spoons, and to identify the relation between color and function, when they had the opportunity to directly compare the exemplars during the pretest events. This outcome builds on a growing body of research indicating that direct comparison of exemplars facilitates the formation of more inclusive and abstract categories in infants, children, and adults (e.g., Gentner & Markman, 1994;Gentner & Medina, 1998;Gentner & Namy, 1999, 2004, 2006. Collectively, the results of these four experiments provide insight into the nature and content of infants' categorical event representations, the cognitive mechanisms that support the formation of more abstract event categories, and the conditions under which transfer of color sensitivity from one situation to another can occur.…”

Section: Present Researchmentioning

confidence: 79%

“…Why does seeing the blue and yellow (and purple and orange) spoon side-by-side make more explicit the relation between color and function? Gentner and her colleagues (Gentner, 1983;Gentner & Gunn, 2001;Gentner & Markman, 1994;Gentner & Medina, 1998;Markman & Gentner, 1997 have argued that when attempting to map one event representation onto another, there are multiple strategies that can be invoked. One strategy is to focus on the objects themselves, and to identify whether the object in the first event (e.g., blue spoon) maps onto the object in the second event (e.g., yellow spoon).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The importance of comparison to the formation and use of object and event categories extends well beyond infancy and color priming, however (e.g., Gentner & Medina, 1998;Gentner & Namy, 2004, 2006. For example, Klibanoff and Waxman (2000; investigated the extent to which comparison, and the formation of object categories, influenced the extension of novel adjectives in preschoolers.…”

Section: The Role Of Comparison In Forming Categorical Event Represenmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Broadly speaking, comparison facilitates learning by supporting the abstraction of commonalities and rules and by providing a mechanism by which this knowledge can be applied to new situations (Gentner & Medina, 1998). We have already specified the importance of comparison processes in object and language learning tasks with infants (also see Gentner & Namy, 2004, 2006.…”

Section: The Role Of Comparison In Forming Categorical Event Represenmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Color–function categories that prime infants to use color information in an object individuation task

Wilcox

Woods

Chapa

2008

Cognitive Psychology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

There is evidence for developmental hierarchies in the type of information to which infants attend when reasoning about objects. Investigators have questioned the origin of these hierarchies and how infants come to identify new sources of information when reasoning about objects. The goal of the present experiments was to shed light on this debate by identifying conditions under which infants' sensitivity to color information, which is slow to emerge, could be enhanced in an object individuation task. The outcome of Experiment 1 confirmed and extended previous reports that 9.5-month-olds can be primed, through exposure to events in which the color of an object predicts its function, to attend to color differences in a subsequent individuation task. The outcomes of Experiments 2 to 4 revealed age-related changes in the nature of the representations that support color priming. This is exemplified by three main findings. First, the representations that are formed during the colorfunction events are relatively specific. That is, infants are primed to use the color difference seen in the color-function events to individuate objects in the test events, but not other color differences. Second, 9.5-month-olds can be led to form more abstract event representations, and then generalize to other colors in the test events if they are shown multiple pairs of colors in the color-function events. Third, slightly younger 9-month-olds also can be led to form more inclusive categories with multiple color pairs, but only when they are allowed to directly compare the exemplars in each color pair during the present events. These results shed light on the development of categorization abilities, cognitive mechanisms that support color-function priming, and the kinds of experiences that can increase infants' sensitivity to color information.

show abstract

Section: The Role Of Comparison In Forming Categorical Event Represensupporting

confidence: 65%

Section: Present Researchmentioning

confidence: 79%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Role Of Comparison In Forming Categorical Event Represenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Role Of Comparison In Forming Categorical Event Represenmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Color–function categories that prime infants to use color information in an object individuation task

Wilcox

Woods

Chapa

2008

Cognitive Psychology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Developmental Processes

2005

Tissue Engineering

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Other uses, including reproduction and distribution, or selling or licensing copies, or posting to personal, institutional or third party websites are prohibited. In most cases authors are permitted to post their version of the article (e.g. in Word or Tex form) to their personal website or institutional repository. Authors requiring further information regarding Elsevier's archiving and manuscript policies are encouraged to visit: http://www.elsevier.com/copyright

show abstract

Acquiring Linguistic Constructions

Tomasello

2007

Handbook of Child Psychology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Similarity and the development of rules

Cited by 380 publications

References 107 publications

Color–function categories that prime infants to use color information in an object individuation task

Color–function categories that prime infants to use color information in an object individuation task

Developmental Processes

Acquiring Linguistic Constructions

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About