Book contents
- The Cambridge Handbook of Cognitive Development
- The Cambridge Handbook of Cognitive Development
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Part I Neurobiological Constraints and Laws of Cognitive Development
- Part II Fundamentals of Cognitive Development from Infancy to Adolescence and Young Adulthood
- Introduction
- Subpart II.1 Infancy: The Roots of Human Thinking
- Subpart II.2 Childhood and Adolescence: The Development of Human Thinking
- 15 Development of Qualitative Thinking
- 16 Development of Numerical Knowledge
- 17 Numerical Cognition and Executive Functions
- 18 Developing Theory of Mind and Counterfactual Reasoning in Children
- 19 Development of Executive Function Skills in Childhood
- 20 Developing Cognitive Control and Flexible Adaptation during Childhood
- 21 Reasoning Bias and Dual Process Theory
- 22 Social Cognitive Development
- 23 Behavioral and Neural Development of Cognitive Control and Risky Decision-Making across Adolescence
- 24 The Triadic Neural Systems Model through a Machine-Learning Mill
- Part III Education and School-Learning Domains
- Index
- Plate Section (PDF Only)
- References
15 - Development of Qualitative Thinking
Language and Categorization
from Subpart II.2 - Childhood and Adolescence: The Development of Human Thinking
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 February 2022
- The Cambridge Handbook of Cognitive Development
- The Cambridge Handbook of Cognitive Development
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Part I Neurobiological Constraints and Laws of Cognitive Development
- Part II Fundamentals of Cognitive Development from Infancy to Adolescence and Young Adulthood
- Introduction
- Subpart II.1 Infancy: The Roots of Human Thinking
- Subpart II.2 Childhood and Adolescence: The Development of Human Thinking
- 15 Development of Qualitative Thinking
- 16 Development of Numerical Knowledge
- 17 Numerical Cognition and Executive Functions
- 18 Developing Theory of Mind and Counterfactual Reasoning in Children
- 19 Development of Executive Function Skills in Childhood
- 20 Developing Cognitive Control and Flexible Adaptation during Childhood
- 21 Reasoning Bias and Dual Process Theory
- 22 Social Cognitive Development
- 23 Behavioral and Neural Development of Cognitive Control and Risky Decision-Making across Adolescence
- 24 The Triadic Neural Systems Model through a Machine-Learning Mill
- Part III Education and School-Learning Domains
- Index
- Plate Section (PDF Only)
- References
Summary
This chapter examines the role of language in children’s categorization. Children categorize every time they treat discriminably different items as in some way the same. A nine-month-old tosses a foam ball, a round candle, and American football, treating them all as throwable objects. A toddler points to a cow and calls it a “dog,” treating all four-legged mammals as somehow alike. A three-year-old wisely observes, “Butterflies have bones,” making a general claim about the abstract set of butterflies. Categories organize human experience, provide the building blocks of thought, and operate on every sort of content: objects, persons, events, mental states, abstract ideas, and logical elements.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Handbook of Cognitive Development , pp. 341 - 360Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022