<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p> The present study employed a serial forced choice inductive inference paradigm to test whether rural and urban 5-year-olds varying in SES rely on the representation of living things in extending new knowledge. Sixty-five children learned that humans possess a novel internal property and, in a series of test trials, had to decide whether to attribute the property to an inanimate living thing or to an artifact. Additionally, the size of children’s receptive vocabulary was assessed. This study provides the first evidence that those 5-year-olds who have access to rich nature and who have acquired a high level of receptive vocabulary do rely on living kinds in induction in a forced choice task. The study further underscores the necessity to include children with diverse backgrounds in research on the development of biological knowledge. It also provides new evidence that general cognitive ability links to advances in children’s biological understanding. </p></abstract>

The present study employed a serial forced choice inductive inference paradigm to test whether rural and urban 5-year-olds varying in SES rely on the representation of living things in extending new knowledge. Sixty-five children learned that humans possess a novel internal property and, in a series of test trials, had to decide whether to attribute the property to an inanimate living thing or to an artifact. Additionally, the size of children’s receptive vocabulary was assessed. This study provides the first evidence that those 5-year-olds who have access to rich nature and who have acquired a high level of receptive vocabulary do rely on living kinds in induction in a forced choice task. The study further underscores the necessity to include children with diverse backgrounds in research on the development of biological knowledge. It also provides new evidence that general cognitive ability links to advances in children’s biological understanding.

The reliance on inclusive living thing in inductive inference among 5-year-olds: the role of access to nature and the size of receptive vocabulary

Psychology of Language and Communication

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 4.0 International License.

The present study employed a serial forced choice inductive inference paradigm to test whether rural and urban 5-year-olds varying in SES rely on the...

The reliance on inclusive living thing in inductive inference among 5-year-olds: the role of access to nature and the size of receptive vocabulary

Article Category: Regular articles

Published Online: Sep 08, 2017

Page range: 109 - 132

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/plc-2017-0006

Keywords
cognitive development, naive biology, receptive vocabulary, living things, inductive inference

© by Andrzej Tarłowski

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 4.0 International License.

The reliance on inclusive living thing in inductive inference among 5-year-olds: the role of access to nature and the size of receptive vocabulary

Article Category: Regular articles

Published Online: Sep 08, 2017

Page range: 109 - 132

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/plc-2017-0006

Keywordscognitive development, naive biology, receptive vocabulary, living things, inductive inference

© by Andrzej Tarłowski

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 4.0 International License.

Keywords
cognitive development, naive biology, receptive vocabulary, living things, inductive inference