A Study On Children's Social Categorization And Inference Based On Category

Category knowledge includes two important functions of social categorization and inference based on category.In the past,they were studied separately,and the research of children's social categorization is mostly concentrated in the natural dimensions,and the research on social dimensions is relatively lacking.Moreover,there is still controversy as to whether the 5-year-old can carry out the external interpretation of the relationship between categories and characteristics.Therefore,the present study explored whether 5-6-year-olds can categorize others make inference,as well as to explain the relationship between categories and properties by the virtue of extrinsic through three experiments.Experiment 1 intend to explore whether children use wealth cues to guide their evaluation of others and whether they also use wealth cues to make inferences about others' properties.We recruited 5 and 6-years-old children and asked them to finish tasks of social preference,friend decisions,category-based inference.The result showed:5-years-old and 6-years-old children expressed preferences for and be willing to be friend with children who were paired with high-wealth and who have the same gender with participants themselves.They also use gender and wealth cues to guide their inferences about others'relative standing in domain of popularity.Experiment 2 intend to explore whether categorization linked information or environment linked information is selected when children categorize and make inference of others' property.Three-triad task was conducted.The result showed:when it was provided to the subjects'wealth and living environment,there was no obvious tendency in either the categorization stage or t in the inference stage.When it was provided to the subjects'gender and environment,the subjects chose more gender in the both stage.Experiment 3 intend to explore whether children are able to understand category-property associations in external terms through the paradigm in structural theory.The result showed:participants thought property in external condition was more mutable.Based on the results of the three studies,the following conclusions are drawn:children aged 5-6 already have a sense of wealth and gender.They can use wealth and gender to guide their evaluation of others.5-6-year-olds are able to characterize others on the basis of gender and wealth.In term of category-property associations,5-6-year-olds are able to the influence of external environment.Both in the categorization stage and the inference stage,children are more inclined to choose gender as the basis.But when turn to wealth and environment,children do not have a clear tendency.