Children’s Choice Preference In Social Category Inductive Reasoning

Research on young children’s inductive reasoning frequently focuses on whether young children’s inductive reasoning relies on category or similarity information.The current study concluded that there may be a developmental process in which young children’s inductive reasoning gradually transitions from inductive reasoning based on similarity information(abbreviated: similarity reasoning)to inductive reasoning based on category information(abbreviated: category reasoning).However,the findings were only for the natural or artifact categories,and there is a lack of exploration of the social categories,that is,in the field of social categories,it is not clear whether children’s inductive reasoning depends more on category information or similarity information and how this preference changes with age.In addition,due to the complexity of social categories,in addition to social categories divided by natural cues,there are also social categories divided by social cues,where the former category boundaries are stable and not easily changed,and the latter category boundaries are unstable and more easily changed.Therefore,the research in the field of social categories needs to investigate the social categories under different cues,so as to answer whether there are differences in the developmental characteristics of children’s social category inductive reasoning under different cues.In view of the above problems,this study designed two experiments to comprehensively explore the development characteristics and preferences of young children’s inductive reasoning in the field of social categories,the transition age of young children’s development from similarity reasoning to category reasoning,and the cognitive factors that affect children’s inductive reasoning.Experiment 1(divided into Experiment 1A and Experiment 1B)explored the development characteristics and preferences of young children’s inductive reasoning about gender categories(natural cues)and rich-poor categories(social cues),and the similarities and differences between them.In both experiments 1A and 1B,children aged 4-6 years were used as participants,using a modified triangular paradigm with a 3(age: 4,5,6)X 2(information: category label,visual similarity)between-subjects design.The results showed that young children aged 4-6 would rely on both visual similarity and category labels for reasoning.However,4-year-old children were more dependent on category labels for gender categories and more dependent on visual similarity for rich-poor categories.5-year-old children were more dependent on category labels for all categories.There was no difference between the two types of information in 6-year-old children.This indicated that there were some differences in the developmental characteristics of young children’s inductive reasoning in different social categories.The earlier children develop the concept of this category,the earlier children will reason based on category information.Young children’s inductive reasoning develops from similarity reasoning to category reasoning to some extent.To further explore the transition age of children’s development from similarity reasoning to category reasoning and the cognitive factors that affect the transition,Experiment 2 was conducted,which was divided into Experiment 2A and Experiment 2B.Experiment 2A explored the transition age of children’s development from similarity reasoning to category reasoning,and Experiment 2B explored the cognitive factors that affect children’s inductive reasoning.Experiment 2A designed an information conflict scenario,that is,the target stimulus was visually similar to reasoning stimulus A,but belonged to the same category label as reasoning stimulus B,requiring children to make reasoning judgments.Experiment 2A used 5-year-old children as participants and adopted a single-factor(social category type: gender category,rich-poor category)between-subjects design.5-year-old children remained consistent in their preference for inductive reasoning on gender and rich and poor categories when faced with information conflicts,but no longer had a clear preference for inductive reasoning based on category information.As for why 5-year-old children no longer tend to reason based on category information,we suspected that it may be related to children’s cognitive inhibition ability,so we designed Experiment 2B.In Experiment 2B,the "day-night stroop test" was used to measure the participants in Experiment 2A,and the results showed that there was a positive correlation between inductive reasoning preference and cognitive inhibition function,and the better the cognitive inhibition function is,the more inclined to inductive reasoning based on category information.The following conclusions were drawn from this study:(1)Children aged 4-6 years old rely on both similarity information and category information for inductive reasoning.Under the influence of knowledge and experience,4-year-old children have different reasoning preferences for gender categories and rich-poor categories,relying more on category labels for gender categories and visual similarity for rich-poor categories.Fiveyear-old relied more on category labels for both categories.By the age of six,children have reached the point where they have the flexibility to use both types of information for inductive reasoning.(2)5 years old may be the transition age of children’s development from similarity reasoning to category reasoning.The development of inductive reasoning is related to cognitive inhibition.