The Relationship between Children's Judgments of Animacy and Sentiency: Another Look

Berzonsky, Michael D.; Miller, Patricia H.; Woody-Ramsey, Janet; Harris, Yvette R.

doi:10.1080/00221325.1988.10532155

Cited by 11 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 15 publications

(27 reference statements)

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“…This is consistent with other recent research (see Berzonsky, 1987;Berzonsky et al, 1988;Carey, 1985). When 5-year-olds alone were considered, a signifi cant inverse correlation between inanimate objects and plant-type items in dicated a general failure to differentiate between these types of objects.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 94%

“…Inanimates and humans were included on the animism test, whereas plants as well as humans and inanimates were used to assess the sentiency distinction. The present findings and others (Berzonsky, 1973(Berzonsky, , 1974Berzonsky et al, 1988) suggest that this confounding of object type with measures may be inappropriate, especially because Pattern III children (correct on inanimate objects, incorrect on plants) would appear to have mas tered the animate-inanimate distinction.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 50%

“…Not only did this variable fail to corre late significantly with the pictorial items or change scores (rs ranging from -.05 to -.34, ns), the significant negative correlation between plant-type and inanimate objects measures reported by Berzonsky (1973Berzonsky ( , 1974 was not replicated. This negative relationship will be found, however, only among subjects who fail to differentiate between plant-type and inanimate objects when making life judgments (see Berzonsky, 1974Berzonsky, , 1987Berzonsky, Miller, Woody-Ramsey, & Harris, 1988). The inclusion of a large number of subjects who correctly (or even incorrectly) distinguish between plants and inanimate objects will attenuate the inverse relationship.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 85%

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Child Animism: Situational Influences and Individual Differences

Berzonsky

1988

The Journal of Genetic Psychology

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 94%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 50%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 85%

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Child Animism: Situational Influences and Individual Differences

Berzonsky

1988

The Journal of Genetic Psychology

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“…However, it appeeirs unlikely that children hold an exclusively biological understanding of plants. Given findings of Study 1 that younger 4-year-olds sometimes accept psychological mechanisms as operative in plant growth, as well as other findings that preschoolers attribute psychological characteristics to plants (Berzonsky, Miller, Woody-Ramsey, & Harris, 1988;Inagaki & Hatano, 1987), it seems that to some extent, children view plants through the lens of a psychological causal-explanatory framework, as well as more appropriately through a biological one. This finding is striking, given that plants lack any observable markers of intentionality (e.g., heads, eyes, ability to speak or hear), and suggests that children may have some residual difficulty keeping distinct the properties of life and the properties of animacy.…”

Section: General Diseussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

How Does Your Garden Grow? Early Conceptualization of Seeds and Their Place in the Plant Growth Cycle

Hickling¹,

Gelman²

1995

Child Development

134

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. Although an increasing body of research supports the view that preschoolers hold theory-like conceptions in the biological domain, most studies concerned have focused exclusively on early conceptions of animals and humans. As a complement to such research, the present studies examined 4-year-olds' conceptualization of seeds, a key stage of plant growth, itself a critical biological process. Study 1 examined judgments about seed origins and growth preconditions, in order to tap early understanding of causal mechanisms pertaining to plant growth. Studies 2 and 3 examined specific understandings of the relations that hold among the distinct stages of growth (seed, plant, flower, fruit). Overall, children demonstrated an impressive grasp of seeds and their place in the growth cycle. By age 4V2 years, children realized that natural causal mechanisms and not other sorts (e.g., human intervention) underlie growth, appreciated the unique relation of seeds to the plant domain, and demonstrated an emerging grasp of growth's cyclical nature. Together, these findings suggest that preschoolers may hold theory-like understandings of plants similar to those they hold of animals and humans.

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“…In addition to occasionally over -extending " alive " to animal -like non -living things, preschoolers are even more likely to under -extend " alive " by excluding non -animal living things (i.e., plants; Berzonsky, Miller, Woody -Ramsey, & Harris, 1987 ;Beveridge & Davies, 1983 ;Hatano et al, 1993 ;Opfer & Siegler, 2004 ). Preschoolers ' errors about plants seem to have at least two causes.…”

Section: Continuitymentioning

confidence: 99%