Whether or not infants' earliest perception of the world is a "blooming, buzzing, confusion," it is not long before they come to perceive structure and order among the objects and events around them. At the core of this process, and cognitive development in general, is the ability to categorize--to group events, objects, or properties together--and to form mental representations, or concepts, that encapsulate the commonalities and structure of these categories. Categorization is the primary means of coding experience, underlying not only perceptual and reasoning processes, but also inductive inference and language. The aim of this book is to bring together the most recent findings and theories about the origins and early development of categorization and conceptual abilities. Despite recent advances in our understanding of this area, a number of hotly debated issues remain at the center of the controversy over categorization. Researchers continue to ask questions such as: Which mechanisms for categorization are available at birth and which emerge later? What are the relative roles of perceptual similarity and nonobservable properties in early classification? What is the role of contextual variation in categorization by infants and children? Do different experimental procedures reveal the same kind of knowledge? Can computational models simulate infant and child categorization? How do computational models inform behavioral research? What is the impact of language on category development? How does language partition the world? This book is the first to address these and other key questions within a single volume. The authors present a diverse set of views representing cutting-edge empirical and theoretical advances in the field. The result is a thorough review of empirical contributions to the literature, and a wealth of fresh theoretical perspectives on early categorization.

Table of Contents:
Frank C. Keil: Foreword: Categories, Cognitive Development, and Cognitive Science Preface Acknowledgments Contributors 1: Lisa M. Oakes and David H. Rakison: Issues in the Early Development of Concepts and Categories: An Introduction PART I. CONCEPTS AND CATEGORIES BEFORE THE EMERGENCE OF LANGUAGE 2: Peter W. Jusczyk: Chunking Language Input to Find Patterns 3: Paul C. Quinn: Concepts Are Not Just for Objects: Categorization of Spatial Relation Information by Infants 4: Barbara A. Younger: Parsing Objects into Categories: Infants' Perception and Use of Correlated Attributes 5: Jean M. Mandler: Conceptual Categorization 6: Lisa M. Oakes and Kelly L. Madole: Principles of Developmental Change in Infants' Category Formation 7: David H. Rakison: Parts, Motion, and the Development of the Animate-Inanimate Distinction in Infancy 8: Leslie B. Cohen: Commentary on Part I: Unresolved Issues in Infant Categorization PART II: CONCEPTS AND CATEGORIES DURING EARLY LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT 9: Sandra R. Waxman: Links between Object Categorization and Naming: Origins and Emergence in Human Infants 10: Carolyn B. Mervis, John R. Pani, and Ariel M. Pani: Transaction of Child Cognitive-Linguistic Abilities and Adult Input in the Acquisition of Lexical Categories at the Basic and Subordinate Levels 11: Linda B. Smith, Eliana Colunga, and Hanako Yoshida: Making an Ontology: Cross-linguistic Evidence 12: Alison Gopnik and Thierry Nazzi: Words, Kinds, and Causal Powers: A Theory Theory Perspective on Early Naming and Categorization 13: Susan A. Gelman and Melissa A. Koenig: Theory-Based Categorization in Early Childhood 14: Denis Mareschal: The Acquisition and Use of Implicit Categories in Early Development 15: Ellen M. Markman and Vikram K. Jaswal: Commentary on Part II: Abilities and Assumptions Underlying Conceptual Development 16: Robert L. Goldstone and Mark K. Johansen: Final Commentary: Conceptual Development from Origins to Asymptotes Author Index Subject Index