Effect of Schooling on Categorization Preferences: A Picture-Classification Study

Abstract

The effects of schooling on the categorization preferences in a picture-classification task were studied in a sample of 332 Salvadoran children, between the ages of 6 and 14 yr. Schooling was the major cause of the developmental shift from a perceptually-based to a conceptually-based categorization preference. Children from higher grades were significantly less likely than their less-schooled counterparts to use perceptible categories and more likely to use functional, nominal, and superordinate categories. Urban-dwelling affected the development in the use of nominal, but not functional, categories. The results are discussed in relation to the findings of previous research.