Valuing of Identity, Distribution of Attention, and Perceptual Salience in Free and Rule-Governed Classifications

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JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL CHILD PSYCHOLOGY ARTICLE NO.

61, 173–189 (1996)

0011

Valuing of Identity, Distribution of Attention, and Perceptual Salience in Free and Rule-Governed Classifications RICHARD D. ODOM Vanderbilt University AND

GREGORY L. COOK University of Wisconsin–Whitewater This experiment investigated classifications of multidimensional objects to test whether (1) the valuing of identity as a classification criterion occurs early in development, (2) the distribution of attention to multiple relations increases with development, and (3) the role of separate, component relations in solving multidimensional classification problems would be manifested through measures of perceptual salience. A salience preassessment followed by free and rule-governed classification tasks were given to 4-, 7-, and 18-yearolds. Total identity, partial identity, overall similar, or overall different choices were available for classification. Results associated with both free and rule-governed classifications indicated that identity serves as a highly valued classification criterion beginning as early as 4 years of age. Results associated with salience indicated that children as young as 4 years perceive and process relations separately and that 4-year-olds show greater differential attention than older children and adults. © 1996 Academic Press, Inc.

When adults are presented a number of objects and asked to group those that go together, several equally reasonable classification options may be available. Some of the objects might be very similar in several of the characteristics by which they are related; others might be very different. (Expressions like “birds of a feather flock together” and “opposites attract” attest to the recognition of these two respective options as possible social classifications.) Still other objects might be partially or totally identical with respect to their relational characteristics. Although total identity is indeed rare with respect to objects in one’s everyday world, it is likely that most adults, when presented with unfamiliar objects, would The authors acknowledge the generous cooperation of the children, parents, and staffs of David Lipscomb Campus School and St. Georges’s Kindergarten. They also thank Theodore Perry for assisting with subjects and data analysis. Address correspondence and reprint requests to Richard D. Odom, Department of Psychology, 301 Wilson Hall, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37240. 173 0022-0965/96 $18.00 Copyright © 1996 by Academic Press, Inc. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

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first classify those that are totally identical as going together before using some less preferred, but equally reasonable, classification rule such as overall similar, overall different, or even partial identity. The rules and criteria for grouping objects together have been a longstanding concern of cognitive developmentalists. Previous research has indicated that when asked to group a given set of objects, various age groups from preschoolers to adults classify them differently. Understanding the nature of developmental change in the cognitive structure and function determining these age-related differences continues to be a major goal of research in this field. According to the differential-sensitivity view of cognitive development (e.g., Cook & Odom, 1992) age-related change in the classification of objects is crucially affected by the perceptual system’s sensitivity to separate relations, with greater sensitivity occurring to more relations as development proceeds. Research has shown that, regardless of their relevance or irrelevance to problem solution, more salient relations, i.e., those to which the perceptual system is more sensitive, are more likely to be conceptualized for solution than less salient relations (e.g., Cunningham & Odom, 1978; Odom & Cook, 1984). In general, when the relation for solution is assessed to be high in salience, accuracy is facilitated. When an irrelevant relation is assessed to be high in salience, its conceptual processing interferes with successful performance. Developmental research involving perceptual salience shows that when the salience of solution-relevant information is sufficiently high that conceptual evaluation is likely, young children’s performance often suggests conceptual and perceptual processes that are like those of older children and adults. For example, Cook and Odom (1988) found that 4-year-olds performed as well as adults on partial-identity problems when the relation represented by identical values was highly salient. The differential-sensitivity view predicts that attention distributed among relations will be more unequal with younger children and increasingly more equal with older children and adults. With increasing development, level of perceptual sensitivity to common relations like those used in the present study is expected to make attentional evaluation of those relations highly likely. Consequently, the effects of assessed salience are expected to be more pronounced with decreasing age. Smith (1989) has proposed a developmental account of classification that predicts the opposite, viz, that development proceeds from “distributed attention to all dimensions to focused attention on one dimension” (1989, p. 141). Additionally, Smith seems to be proposing that age-related differences in classifications result from variations in the valuing of identity, which is said to increase with development. She proposes that an increase in the specialness of identity as a type of similarity classification causes an increase with age in selective attention to single dimensions. Earlier, Aschkenasy, and Odom (1982, p. 440) suggested that those findings in integrality research (e.g., Smith & Kemler, 1977) showing older children and adults making a majority of partialidentity instead of equally reasonable overall-similar classifications might indi-

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cate a developmental increase in the conceptual preference for identity as a classification criterion. The present experiment was designed as a further assessment of the differential-sensitivity position and of certain alternatives proposed by Smith (1989). The study specifically tested (1) whether development involves a move from an equal to a prioritized distribution of attention to single dimensions assessed for salience and (2) whether the valuing of identity can be shown to increase with development under conditions of both free and rule-governed classification procedures. In a match-to-standard task, the designations of the four choice types (and rule problems) were based on how the choice and standard items were related to one another. From left to right at the bottom of Fig. 1 are examples of the choice types of (1) total identity, (2) overall similar, (3) overall different, and (4) partial identity; they were present on every item of every task. This structure was used in two tasks. In the free-classification task the instructions and feedback were neutral, and subjects were asked to choose their preferred classification. In the rule-governed task only one of the four possible classifications was appropriate, and through corrective feedback the subjects could determine which of the classification rules was the relevant one. The rule-governed task assessed the ability to discover the relevant relations and then to apply the rule for making solution-relevant choices, which were indicated through feedback. Reliably distinguishing the correct from the incorrect choices required the perceptual and conceptual processing of both the relevant relations (size and orientation in Fig. 1). To assess the development of the distribution of attention, the perceptual salience of the relations comprising the structure of each problem was varied. Using traditional measures, salience was determined before the presentation of the free-classification and rule-governed tasks. According to the differentialsensitivity position, subjects should distribute their choices differentially among the relations available for classification. Specifically, they should be more likely to devote more attention and other types of conceptual processing to relations higher in salience than to relations lower in salience. Because the structure of the partial-identity choice was asymmetrical with

FIG. 1. Example of an item used in the free and rule-governed tasks. (Orientation and size are varying while brightness remains constant.)

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regard to the standard (an identical value and a different value) and the structures of the other three choice types were symmetrical (both values were identical, similar, or different), the effects of salience could be discerned only when the partial-identity choice was appropriate for problem solution. When the partialidentity rule was applicable to solution, performance was expected to be more accurate when the salience of the identity-bearing relation was high and the difference relation was low; performance was expected to be less accurate when the reverse occurred. In addition to salience, this prediction relies on the assumed role of a conceptualization process that prefers an identity criterion to other classification rules. Across conditions where the identity-bearing relation is low in salience, the difference relation is high, and vice versa. If difference is valued no less than identity as a classification criterion, the salience conditions should not result in performance differences. After the subject had already experienced a number of trials, an additional salience manipulation was introduced by changing the perceptual salience of the relations represented by the standard and the partial-identity choice. When the identity-bearing relation in the partial-identity problem was high in salience before the change, following the change it was low in salience. Conversely, if that relation was low in salience before the change, it was high in salience after the change. If a preference for an identity criterion existed when the change occurred, accuracy was expected to decrease when the relation bearing the identity became lower in salience (high-to-low change) and increase when the relation became higher in salience (low-to-high). Such results would indicate an unequal distribution of attention to the identity relation due to its level of perceptual salience. METHOD Subjects The subjects were 32 children from a kindergarten, 32 children from a private elementary school, and 32 Vanderbilt undergraduates, all from the city of Nashville. The mean chronological ages for the three groups, respectively, were 4 years, 7 years 6 months, and 18 years 6 months. Parental consent for the children was obtained, and all subjects volunteered to participate. Stimulus Materials The materials consisted of stimuli created with the Mac-Draw graphics program and printed on 21.5 × 28-cm white paper by a Macintosh laser printer. The stimuli were circles with 15-mm lines extending from their periphery. They differed from one another along the relations of brightness, size, and orientation. Salience Items The salience preassessment consisted of 12 unique items, each consisting of three compounds. The diameters of the circles used in the salience task were

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28-mm (1.12 × 1.12 in Mac-Draw units), 41 mm (1.62 × 1.62), and 54 mm (2.12 × 2.12). The orientations of the lines used were 25, 55, and 85 degrees (from the 12 o’clock position), and the brightness levels were black (the third shade in the Fill menu), medium dark gray (the fifth shade), and white (the second shade). On each salience item, one comparison was identical to the standard on one relation and a second comparison was identical to the standard on another relation. The remaining relational values on the three compounds—including three from a third relation—differed from one another. Based on the identical values, equal numbers of the relational combinations of size and brightness, size and orientation, and brightness and orientation were created among the 12 unique salience items. Counterbalancing procedures were followed to ensure that the relational values were combined and placed equally across the items. Free and Rule-Governed Tasks The materials for the free-classification and rule-governed tasks were also compounds containing values from the relations of brightness, orientation, and size. Three different sets of compounds were constructed so that one of the three relations remained constant and the other two varied. The combinations of variable relations in sets were brightness and size, size and orientation, and brightness and orientation. Each item in both tasks consisted of a standard compound located above four response compounds in a horizontal array. Counterbalancing procedures were used to ensure that the location and frequency for each compound in the arrays were equally probable. An example item is shown in Fig. 1. The values used for the relation of brightness were black (the third shade in the Fill menu), dark gray (fourth shade), medium dark gray (fifth shade), medium gray (sixth shade), medium light gray (seventh shade), light gray (eighth shade), and white (second shade). The values used for the relation of size were diameters of 6 mm (0.25 × 0.25 in Mac-Draw units), 12 mm (0.5 × 0.5), 19 mm (0.75 × 0.75), 25 mm (1.0 × 1.0), 31 mm (1.25 × 1.25), 38 mm (1.5 × 1.5), and 49 mm (1.75 × 1.75). The values used for the relation of orientation were 20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 120, and 140 degrees. When a relation was held constant, the value used was either 25 mm for size, medium gray for brightness, or 45 degrees for line orientation. Each of the three sets contained 24 unique classification items. On each item, the values used to create each of the four unique choices had to satisfy one of the following conditions: (1) the total-identity choice was identical to the standard on all relations, (2) the partial-identity compound was identical to the standard on one relation and was four values different from it on the other relation, (3) the overall-similar compound was one value different from the standard on both relations, and (4) the overall-different compound was different from the standard by four values on both relations. On the last 12 items in the stimulus sets, the value on partial-identity changed from an identity with the standard on one relation to an identity with the standard on the other relation.

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Procedure The experimenter sat across from the subject and presented 12 salience items. The instructions given were “point to the one down here that goes with the one up here.” Instructions did not differentially favor any type of classification, and no feedback was given after a choice was made. Following the assessment each subject’s salience hierarchy of the three relations of brightness, size, and orientation was determined by designating as high in salience the relation serving most frequently as the basis for identity choices and the one serving least frequently as low in salience. Half of the subjects at each age level were randomly assigned to each of two salience conditions (high-to-low salience or low-to-high salience as determined by the identity relation on the partial-identity choice). An equal number of subjects in each of these conditions were randomly assigned to each of four problem-solving conditions in which the solution-relevant rule was either total identity, partial identity, overall similar, or overall different. Approximately 7 to 10 days after the salience assessment, these subjects received a free-classification task consisting of 6 items followed immediately by a rule-governed task consisting of 24 items. For the free-classification task (see Fig. 1), the experimenter sat across from the subject and for the first 6 successive items asked the subject to “point to the one down here that goes with the one up here.” After the subject’s response was given for item number 6, the rulegoverned task began. The experimenter used item 6 as an example and said: “Now we are going to play a game. I want you to pick winners and try not to pick any losers. The winner down here that goes with this one is this.” The experimenter pointed to the item that was the correct response for the rule-type condition to which the subject was assigned. For the next 24 items (or 4 trial blocks, each consisting of 6 unique items) the experimenter responded to the subject’s choice with either “yes” or “no.” If the subject gave an incorrect response, the experimenter said “no” and pointed to the correct choice saying, “This is the winner.” When the salience change on the partial-identity choice type occurred after the third block in the rule-governed series, the experimenter proceeded as if nothing had changed. In the rule-governed task, 18 items (3 blocks of 6) occurred before the salience change; after the change, another 6 items (1 block) occurred. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Free-Classification Task The means for each type of choice made on the six trials of the freeclassification task are contained in Table 1. It is apparent from these data that a substantial majority of each age group’s choices were of the total-identity choice type. To assess the significance of differences in the frequency of choice types, a 3 (Age) × 3 (Choice Type) analysis of variance with repeated measures on the second factor was performed. Overall-different choices were omitted due to their

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SALIENCE AND IDENTITY VALUING TABLE 1 Mean Type of Choice Made in the Free-Classification Task Choice type Age group

Total identity a

3.88 (1.91) 5.22b (1.16) 5.69b (.74) 4.93 (1.55)

4 years 7 years 18 years Combined

Partial identity

Overall similar

Overall different

.94 (.91) .53 (.84) .31 (.74) .59 (.87)

.30 (.93) .00 (.00) .00 (.00) .10 (.55)

a

.88 (1.50) .25 (.80) .00b (.00) .38 (1.04)

Note. Standard deviations are given in parentheses, and a,b show means that differ reliably in each column.

infrequency. The analysis revealed significant main effects of age, F(2,93) 4 3.60, p < .05, and choice type, F(2,186) 4 355.45, p < .0001. The age and choice type interaction was also significant, F(4,186) 4 10.59, p < .0001. Tukey comparisons showed that 4-year-olds made fewer total-identity choices than the other age groups (p’s < .01), and the 4-year-olds made more partial-identity choices than the 18-year-olds (p < .05). None of the other age-related differences among the means was significant. One-tailed t tests showed that subjects in each age group chose total-identity significantly more often than would be expected by chance (1.5 choices), t’s(7) $ 3.57, p’s < .001. Each age group selected each of the other three choice types at a frequency significantly below that expected by chance, p’s < .05. Rule-Governed Task Table 2 contains the mean number of errors made across the first 18 trials in the rule-governed task. To determine the effects of developmental level and the specific problem-solving requirements, a 3 (Age) × 4 (Rule Type) × 3 (Trial Block) analysis of variance with repeated measures on the last factor was performed on errors made during the first three trial blocks, each of which contained six items. The results of the analysis showed that the main effects of age, rule type, and trial block were all significant at the .0001 level, F(2,84) 4 48.28, TABLE 2 Number of Errors Made across the First 18 Trials in the Rule-Governed Task Rule type Age group

Total identity

Partial identity

Overall similar

Overall different

4 years 7 years 18 Years Combined

2.63 (3.66) .38 (.52) .00 (.00) 1.00 (2.36)

10.63 (5.37) 1.38 (1.06) .38 (.74) 4.13 (5.61)

10.25 (4.06) 8.25 (4.95) 3.25 (2.87) 7.25 (4.90)

11.13 (4.85) 3.00 (2.00) .63 (.74) 4.92 (5.44)

Note. Standard deviations are given in parentheses, and the number of total possible errors was 18.

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F(3,84) 4 15.80, and F(2,168) 4 30.41, respectively. The other significant effects were the interactions between age and rule type, F(6,84) 4 4.25, p < .001, and rule type and trial block, F(6,168) 4 3.48, p < .01. For the age and rule type interaction, Tukey comparisons revealed a number of significant differences (p’s < .05). As seen in Table 2, the 4- and 7-year-olds made fewer errors in the total-identity problem than in any other type of problem. The adults in the total-identity problem made significantly fewer errors than those in the overall-similar problem. Both the adults and the 7-year-olds made fewer errors in the partial-identity and overall-different problems than in the overall-similar problem. Overall, the 7-year-olds and adults made fewer errors in each of the four problem types than the 4-year-olds, and the adults made fewer errors than the 7-year-olds in the partial-identity, the overall-similar, and the overall-different problems. Choices based on guessing or chance would yield an error rate of 13.5. One-tailed t tests showed that subjects in each age group performed significantly above chance in each rule problem, t’s(7) $ 2.37, p’s < .05. Figure 2 shows the interaction between rule type and trial block. Tukey comparisons of errors on the first and third trial blocks revealed a significant decrease in errors in only the overall-different and overall-similar problems (p < .05). As seen in Fig. 2, these were the most difficult problems and the only ones in which accuracy significantly improved with increasing experience in the problem. The results of both the free-classification and the rule-governed tasks indicated that for all age groups total identity was a highly valued classification criterion. Regardless of age, a large majority of subjects (1) freely chose to classify by total identity instead of the other three criteria and (2) made very infrequent errors on problems with total-identity solutions. Performance on the first 18 trials of the rule-governed problems failed to support the integrality conclusion that 4-year-olds prefer to classify by overall

FIG. 2.

Errors of subjects in each rule-governed problem across the first three trial blocks.

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similarity (e.g., Smith & Kemler, 1977). The differences in errors made in the overall-similar, the partial-identity, and the overall-different problems were nonsignificant. Like the older age groups, the 4-year-olds were highly accurate in the total-identity problem, indicating that the valuing of identity as a classification criterion begins early in development. In order to determine if the salience of the relation carrying the identity in the partial-identity problem had an effect on performance, a 3 (Age) × 2 (Salience) × 3 (Trial Block) analysis of variance was performed on errors made during the first three trial blocks (first 18 items) in the partial-identity problem. The results of the analysis showed that the main effects of age, salience, and trial block were all significant, F(2,18) 4 34.26, p < .0001, F(1,18) 4 4.70, p < .05, and F(2,36) 4 8.81, p < .001, respectively. The only significant interaction was between age, salience, and trial block, F(4,36) 4 2.84, p < .05. Figure 3 shows the data associated with this interaction, and age differences in the patterns of errors across trials are evident. Tukey comparisons revealed that only the 4-year-olds made significantly more errors in the low-salience condition than in the high-salience condition on trial blocks 1, 2, and 3 (p’s < .05). Whereas the 4-year-olds’ errors showed no significant decline between trial blocks 1 and 3 in the low-salience condition, errors in the high-salience condition decreased significantly (p < .01) from the first to the third trial block. The only other effect of experience with the problem was shown by the 7-year-olds, who decreased their errors from the first to the third trial block in the low-salience condition (p < .05). As anticipated by the differential-sensitivity position, errors during the first three trial blocks of the partial-identity problem were fewer when the salience of the identity-bearing relation was high than when it was low. This effect was pronounced and reliable for the 4-year-olds. Although differences were in the predicted direction for the older age groups, they were unreliable, indicating that both of the varying relations were sufficiently high in salience for attention and conceptual processing to be likely. The differential-sensitivity position assumes that with development, greater perceptual experience with an increasing number of relations contributes to the salience of those relations and to the likelihood of their being conceptualized in problem settings. Support for this assumption has been realized in previous research when increased perceptual experience through sensitization training with a relation low in salience increased its conceptual evaluation in a subsequent problem (Odom & Cook, 1984; Rollins & Castle, 1973; West & Odom, 1979). Young children have reliably shown strong and persuasive accuracy differences based on preassessed salience across a variety of task settings (see Cook & Odom, 1992, and Odom, 1978, for reviews). This work has shown that conclusions about certain conceptual incompetence in young children can often be inappropriate because they are based on assessment tasks composed of perceptual vehicle structures (relations) that are so low in salience that the assessed competence cannot be accessed.

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FIG. 3. Errors of the three age groups in the high- and low-salience conditions during the first three trial blocks of the partial-identity problem.

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With increasing age, preassessed salience becomes less predictive of problemsolving accuracy, presumably because older children and adults have perceptual systems that are more highly sensitive to more relations. Consequently, they are more likely than younger children to give solution-relevant relations attention. In other words, a relation within the older person’s hierarchy that has a preassessed salience level that is less than the highest may still be sufficiently salient to result in a high probability of conceptual processing. Nevertheless, the older person’s equivalent performance across problems differing in the salience of solution-relevant information may suggest that flexibility of attention increases with development and that perceptual salience plays no role in determining accuracy. Such an interpretation, however, appears incompatible with both (1) logic and (2) research findings. First, it is logical that perceptual sensitivity to solution-relevant relations must be above zero in order for them to be perceived and even slightly attended. (The accuracy of older subjects in the present study indicates that the salience of the solution-relevant relations must have been well above zero.) Second, the proposal that flexibility of attention increases with development does not account for those less frequent but nonetheless reliable results showing older children (e.g., Cunningham & Odom, 1978) and adults (e.g., West, Odom, & Aschkenasy, 1978) performing less accurately when the solution-relevant relation was low rather than high in preassessed salience. Likewise, such a position does not explain why younger children show high levels of attentional flexibility and accuracy when the problem’s relevant relation is highly salient (e.g., Odom, 1972). An attentional flexibility position provides no basis for predicting when attention is going to be biased and nonrandom with regard to specific relations. Beginning with the fourth block of trials, the salience of the identity-bearing relation of the partial-identity choice changed for all subjects. To assess the effects of salience change on the age groups’ accuracy in the different problemsolving tasks, errors made on trial blocks 3 and 4 were analyzed by means of a 3 (Age) × 4 (Rule Type) × 2 (Trial Block) analysis of variance. The results showed that the main effects of age, rule type, and trial block were significant, F(2,84) 4 42.92, p < .0001, F(3,84) 4 21.54, p < .0001, and F(1,84) 4 54.72, p < .0001, respectively. The analysis also revealed significant interactions between (1) age and rule type, F(6,84) 4 3.57, p < .01, (2) rule type and trial block, F(3,84) 4 13.95, p < .0001, and (3) age, rule type, and trial block, F(6,84) 4 2.78, p < .05. The data associated with the interaction between age, rule type, and trial block are shown in Fig. 4. Although Tukey comparisons showed that the 7-year-olds and the adults made fewer errors than the 4-year-olds in the total-identity problem (p < .01), it is notable that in the total-identity problem the performance of all age groups was highly accurate across both trial blocks. In the partial-identity problem, however, all three age groups showed a dramatic and significant (p’s < .01) increase in errors from trial block 3 to trial block 4 when the salience of the identity-bearing relation for the relevant choice changed. Although no salience

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FIG. 4. Errors of the three age groups in the rule-governed problems during trial blocks 3 (before salience change) and 4 (after salience change).

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change occurred in the other choice types, errors increased from block 3 to block 4 for 7-year-olds in the overall-different problem (p < .05) and for 4- and 18-year-olds in the overall-similar problem (p’s < .05). Because the salience change was the result of changes in values on only the partial-identity choice type and because the change did not alter relations between the other three choices and the standard compound, only the accuracy of subjects in the partial-identity problem was expected to be affected. The unexpected increase in errors in the overall-similar and the overall-different problems may have reflected conceptual confusion resulting from the change that created a relation(s) of difference within the array of four choice types. That is, the relationship between the partial-identity and the remaining three choice types changed from what it had been on previous trials. In Fig. 1, for example, the partial-identity and total-identity compounds are the same size but differ in orientation. After the salience change, this would be reversed: they would now differ in size and be the same in orientation. The relationship between the partial-identity and overall-different compounds would also reverse. In this way, the salience change introduced new differences into the choice array, differences in how the compounds related to each other. Past research (e.g., Cook & Odom, 1992; Odom & Guzman, 1970) has shown relations of difference to be more salient than those of similarity or identity. It is possible that the differences created by the trial block 4 change were sufficiently salient to increase the likelihood of their conceptual evaluation. The increasing errors suggest that such an evaluation was distracting. An additional contribution to the confusion and errors in all but the total-identity problem may have been a lack of preference and value for nonidentity solution criteria. An exaggerated version of the change effect shown in Fig. 4 is presented in Table 3, which contains the number of errors made by the three age groups in the four rule problems during trials 18 (last trial before the salience change) and 19 (first trial of the change). These data reflect the immediate effect of the salience change in the identity relation of the partial-identity choice. In the partial-identity problem all age groups showed a marked increase in errors from trial 18 to trial 19. Every subject at every age level in this problem made an error on trial 19. TABLE 3 Number of Errors Made on Trials 18 and 19 Rule type Age group

Trial

Total identity

Partial identity

Overall similar

Overall different

4 years

18 19 18 19 18 19

1 1 0 1 0 0

5 8 0 8 0 8

4 5 2 4 0 4

4 5 0 5 1 1

7 years 18 years

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Increased errors in problems other than the partial-identity problem also occurred for all age groups. In order to assess the effects of the change in the salience associated with the partial-identity choice, a 3 (Age) × 2 (Salience Change) × 2 (Trial Block) analysis of variance was performed on the number of errors made in the partial-identity problem across blocks 3 and 4. The results of the analysis showed that there was a main effect of age, F(2,18) 4 31.91, p < .0001, and trial block, F(1,18) 4 90.09, p < .0001. The significant interactions were between age and salience, F(2,18) 4 9.11, p < .01 (which is uninterpretable because the data reflect combined levels of salience), and between salience and trial block, F(1,18) 4 11.34, p < .01. Figure 5 shows the interaction between salience and trial block in the partialidentity problem. Tukey comparisons of the data associated with this interaction revealed that subjects made more errors on trial block 3 when the salience of the identity relation was low than when it was high (p < .01). On trial block 4 subjects also made more errors when the salience changed to low than when it changed to high (p < .01). This result is further support for the differential sensitivity view; however, it could not have been caused by predisposed salience alone. Solving the partialidentity problem required evaluation of both the higher and the lower relations. It can be seen in Fig. 1, for instance, that the problem could not be solved by evaluating size alone because both the partial-identity and total-identity choices match the standard on size. Choosing the correct item therefore required that both relations be evaluated (one for identity and one for difference). The fact that fewer errors occurred only when higher salience was associated with the identity and not with the difference relation indicates that subjects held a conceptual preference for identity over difference classifications. If there had been no pref-

FIG. 5. Errors on trial blocks 3 (before salience change) and 4 (after salience change) in each salience condition of the partial-identity problem.

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erence, performance would not have been significantly better on either trial block 3 or 4 in the salience condition where identity was high (and difference low) than in the salience condition where identity was low (and difference was high). The effect of the salience change from trial block 3 to 4 in the partial-identity choice type demonstrates that as early as 4 years of age even partial identity is valued as a classification criterion. These effects of salience indicate that attention is distributed differentially across the relations, with relations higher in perceptual salience receiving a higher priority or more focused attention during the conceptual evaluation of the choice types and classification rules. The finding that salience had marked effects on the accuracy of 4-year-olds does not support Smith’s (1989) hypothesis that attention in early development is distributed equally across relations. To the contrary, in the present study there was evidence for more inequality in the attention of the 4-year-olds than in that of the older groups. Finally, Table 4 contains the types of errors made on trial block 4 in the four conditions. To assess what type of item was chosen in place of the correct item, separate 3 (Age) × 3 (Error Type) analyses of variance with repeated measures on the last factor were conducted on the types of errors associated with three of the rule-type problems. No error type analysis was performed on errors in the total-identity problem because of their infrequency. The analysis of data associated with the partial-identity problem revealed only a main effect of age, F(2,63) 4 6.32, p < .01. For the overall-similar problem there was a main effect of age, F(2,63) 4 3.93, p < .05, and error type, F(2,63) TABLE 4 Mean Number of Error Types Made on Trial Block 4 after Salience Change Error type Age group 4 years

7 years

18 years

Rule condition

Total identity

Partial identity

Overall similar

Overall different

Total Identity Partial Identity Overall Similar Overall Different Combined Total Identity Partial Identity Overall Similar Overall Different Combined Total Identity Partial Identity Overall Similar Overall Different Combined

— 1.88 .88 1.38 1.38 — 1.13 1.00 .00 .71 — .88 .38 .00 .42

.13 — 1.63 1.75 1.17 .00 — 1.13 1.38 .84 .00 — 1.00 .13 .38

.63 1.50 — .63 .92 .13 1.38 — .63 .71 .00 .25 — .00 .08

.00 1.88 1.13 — 1.00 .00 1.13 .25 — .46 .00 1.25 .13 — .46

Note. Total number of possible errors was 6.

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4 4.57, p < .01. Tukey comparisons for the overall-similar problem indicated that subjects chose fewer overall-different choice types as errors than partialidentity choice types (p’s < .01). The analysis associated with the overalldifferent problem revealed effects of age, F(2,63) 4 8.65, p < .001, and error type, F(2,63) 4 3.73, p < .05, with Tukey comparisons indicating that subjects chose fewer overall-similar choice types as errors than partial-identity choice types (p’s < .01). If, as Smith and Kemler (1977) and other integrality theorists suggest, younger children value overall-similar classifications, one might have expected the majority of the 4-year-olds’ errors to have been overall-similar choices (in all but the overall-similar problem). However, this expectation is not supported by the data in Table 4, which show the overall-similar error to be the one least frequently made by all age groups. It appears that when faced with a confusing problemsolving situation, many subjects may have reverted back to a strategy which they valued highly or that lessened the mental effort required in the task. Regardless of age, subjects made a majority of errors based on total- and partial-identity choice types. Also, performance associated with the salience change of the identity relation in the partial-identity problem demonstrated that subjects at all age levels not only perceived relations separably but also valued identity classifications. In order for salience to have had an effect on performance in the partial-identity problem, separable perception and the valuing of identity were both necessary. In conclusion, the results of the present study indicate that beginning as early as 4 years of age identity serves as a highly valued classification criterion that is preferred more than overall similar or overall different and is applied to relations that are prioritized differentially by the perceptual system. These developmental findings demonstrate the independent and interactive roles of perceptual salience and the conceptual valuing of identity in both free and rule-governed classifications. REFERENCES Aschkenasy, J. R., & Odom, R. D. ( 1982 ). Classification and perceptual development: Exploring issues about integrity and differential sensitivity. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 45, 560–567. Cook, G. L., & Odom, R. D. ( 1988 ). Perceptual sensitivity to dimensional and similarity relations in free and rule-governed classifications. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 45, 319–338. Cook, G. L., & Odom, R. D. ( 1992 ). Perception of multidimensional stimuli: A differentialsensitivity account of cognitive processing and development. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 54, 213–249. Cunningham, J. G., & Odom, R. D. ( 1978 ). The role of perceptual salience in the development of analysis and synthesis processes. Child Development, 49, 815–823. Odom, R. D. ( 1972 ). Effects of perceptual salience on the recall of relevant and incidental dimensional values: A developmental study. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 92, 285–291. Odom, R. D. ( 1978 ). A perceptual salience account of décalage relations and developmental change. In L. S. Siegel & C. J. Brainerd (Eds.), Alternatives to Piaget: Critical essays on the theory. New York: Academic Press.

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Odom, R. D., & Cook, G. L. ( 1984 ). Perceptual sensitivity, integral perception, and similarity classifications of preschool children and adults. Developmental Psychology, 20, 560–567. Odom, R. D., & Guzman, R. D. ( 1970 ). Problem solving and the perceptual salience of variability and constancy: A developmental study. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 9, 156–165. Rollins, H., & Castle, K. ( 1973 ). Dimensional preference, pretraining and attention in children’s concept identification. Child Development, 44, 363–366. Smith, L. B. ( 1989 ). A model of perceptual classification in children and adults. Psychological Review, 96, 125–144. Smith, L. B., & Kemler, D. G. ( 1977 ). Developmental trends in free classification: Evidence for a new conceptualization of perceptual development. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 24, 279–298. West, R. L., & Odom, R. D. ( 1979 ). Effects of perceptual training on the salience of information in a recall problem. Child Development, 50, 1261–1264. West, R. L., Odom, R. D., & Aschkenasy, J. R. ( 1978 ). Perceptual sensitivity and conceptual coordination in children and younger and older adults. Human Development, 21, 334–345. RECEIVED: August 3, 1994;

REVISED:

January 9, 1995.