Development of Classificatory Behavior1
Ernest Lawrence Rossi · Child Development · 1964
Bousfield's associative clustering method was used to study the development of classificatory behavior. Three groups of children5, 8, and 11 years of age, respectively-were administered a 20-word stimulus list made up of five words from each of four different categories. For half of the subjects at each age level, verbal mediating terms were included. No deviation from linearity in the relation between age and clustering was found; nor did the presence of verbal mediators appear to facilitate clustering. The importance of difficulty level of stimulus material for demonstrating both the effectiveness of verbal mediators in clustering and the existence of discriminable developmental stages in classificatory behavior is discussed.