Abstract:

Flexible categorization is highly influenced in preschool children by several external factors. The present study investigated instructions as important cues for orienting children's attention toward the relevant dimensions of a stimulus in a given context. The prediction was that more specific instructions (as in guided sorting) would lead to more flexible categorization than general instructions like "same as/goes with". 28 children (mean age - 3 years and 6 months) were distributed in two conditions: sorting with "matching" instructions and guided sorting. Results showed that indeed guided sorting led to more flexible categorizations at this age. This result underline the fact that the ability to take into account several dimensions for one stimulus in order to put it in different categories is influenced in the preschool years by the instructions children receive. This kind of studies could be relevant for the early investigation of cognitive flexibility, which represents one of the hallmarks of human thinking.

Keywords: categorization, flexibility, preschool age, instructions