CATEGORIZARE SI INHIBITIE COGNITIVA LA COPIII DE VARSTA PRESCOLARA

Abstract:

Speaking about categorization, the efficiency of the cognitive system is given on the one hand by the existence of well-defined categories, and on the other hand by the ability to go beyond the boundaries of these classes and to reorganize information according to contextual demands (flexible categorization). Studies from the literature show that flexible categorization is present already at early ages when some factors are present (external ones - e.g., training, instructions - and internal ones - e.g., cognitive inhibition, working memory capacity). The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between flexible categorization and cognitive inhibition in preschool children. Subjects (N=14) were aged between 3 and 4 ½ years. They were tested with two tasks: a Stroop-like day-night task for inhibition (Gerstadt, Hong & Diamond, 1994) and an object sorting task for flexible categorization. As 6 children did not perform the inhibition task properly, it was impossible to measure any correlation. In consequence, the study presents the analysis of the individual performance of the 8 children that performed both tasks. Discussion regards the implications of investigating the interplay between external and internal factors for understanding the mechanisms and the development of categorization.

Keywords: categorization, cognitive inhibition, preschool children, flexibility