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On differentiation: A case study of the development of the concepts of size, weight, and density (1985)
| Venue: | Cognition |
| Citations: | 49 - 2 self |
BibTeX
@ARTICLE{Smith85ondifferentiation:,
author = {Carol Smith and Susan Carey and Marianne Wiser},
title = {On differentiation: A case study of the development of the concepts of size, weight, and density},
journal = {Cognition},
year = {1985},
volume = {21},
pages = {177--237}
}
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Abstract
This paper presents a case study of 3- to 9-year-old children's concepts of size, weight, density, matter, and material kind. Our goal was to examine two claims: (1) that individual concepts undergo differentiation during development; and (2) that young children's concepts are embedded in theory-like structures. To make progress on the first issue, we needed to specify in representational terms what an undifferentiated concept is like and in what sense this undifferentiated concept is a parent of the more differentiated concepts. Our strategy was to use a model of conceptual differentiation suggested by the history of science to guide our search for evidence. In this model, undifferentiated concepts, like differentiated concepts, can be analyzed in terms of their component properties, features, or dimensions. The key difference is that an undifferentiated concept unites certain components which will subsequently be analyzed as components of distinct concepts, and that the undifferentiated concept is embedded in a different theoretical structure from the differentiated concepts. In our study, the same group of 78 children (18 3-year-olds, 18 4-year-olds, 18 5-year-olds, 12 6-7-year-olds, and 12 8-9-year-olds) were given a range of tasks probing their understanding of size, weight, and density; a
Keyphrases
case study undifferentiated concept differentiated concept young child 9-year-old child material kind first issue key difference different theoretical structure component property undifferentiated concept unites certain component distinct concept representational term individual concept undergo differentiation conceptual differentiation theory-like structure
