Separable and integral responding by children and adults to the dimensions of length and density

Abstract

The classifying behavior of 5-year-old children and adults was examined in 2 studies of restricted classification using triads of stimuli composed of the dimensions of length and density. Subjects could classify on the basis of dimensional structure, overall similarity, or neither. Adults showed a majority of dimensionally based responses, while children gave a majority of similarity-based responses in experiment 1. This pattern is consistent with the notion of separable perception for adults and integral perception for children. The results of a pretask for experiment 2 in which subjects were required to make dimensional comparisons indicate that children's integral responding is not based on an inability to access dimensional relations. The results are discussed in terms of possible strategic differences underlying separable and integral responding.