When a Rose Is Just a Rose: The Illusion of Taxonomies in Infant Categorization

Abstract

The terms basic, superordinate, subordinate, and global are often used to describe the categories formed by infants. However, although infants' categories appear externally to match those formed by adults, it is not clear that they are grounded in an organized hierarchical system that embodies relations within and between domains; that is, a taxonomy. To assess whether it is appropriate to consider infants' categories as taxonomies, 3 criteria are examined: (a) similarity to adults' choice of category members, (b) hierarchical understanding, and (c) agreement with adults' bases for classification. It is argued that infants' categories do not meet these criteria and that it may be erroneous to apply the same labels to categories formed in the first 2 years as those in later life. To do so may be to hold an illusion of taxonomies about infants' categories.

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