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On the semantics of infant categorization and why infants perceive horses as humans

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2008

Paul C. Quinn
Paul C. Quinn
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716. pquinn@udel.eduhttp://w3.psych.udel.edu/people/faculty/quinn.asp
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Abstract

This commentary considers the issues of what should be taken as evidence for semantic categorization in infants and why infants display a surprising asymmetry in the categorization of humans versus nonhuman animals. It is argued that perceptual knowledge should be viewed as a potent source of information for semantic categorization, and that the asymmetrical categorization behavior arises as a consequence of the frequency and similarity structure of experience.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 31 , Issue 6 , December 2008 , pp. 724 - 726
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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