Taxonomic structure in early to middle childhood: A longitudinal study with Zimbabwean schoolchildren

Abstract

Children’s classification reasoning was examined with longitudinal data for 103 Zimbabwean Black (47) and White (56) children attending a randomly selected sample of public schools. The children varied by gender, social class membership (lower, middle, upper) and race (black, white). The children attempted a set of classification tasks at ages 7, 9, and 11. Responses to the classification tasks were scored in terms of interpretive strategy used to engage the tasks (taxonomic vs. instrumental). Repeated measures MANOVA and post-hoc orthogonal contrasts yielded significant differences in interpretive strategies by age or level of schooling, and social class. Higher social class membership was significantly related to more frequent use of taxonomic rather than functional classification strategies. Results support age/schooling-related effects in the development of taxonomic structure in a non-Western society.