对呈现在儿童面前的不熟悉的材料用儿童熟悉的、各不相同的类别标签命名之后,使儿童面临知觉相似和类别冲突的情形下,研究了儿童的归纳推理及其发展。研究结果显示,在此情形下,5岁儿童的归纳推理主要是基于知觉相似的,7岁儿童基于知觉相似和基于类别的归纳推理之间差异不显著,11岁儿童则主要基于类别进行归纳推理。
5-, 7-and ll-year-olds' induction was tested by the triad inductive task which used unfamiliar materials with familiar labels. The data showed that 1) when materials were unfamiliar to children but given familiar labels, 5-year-olds would mainly use similarity to support their induction and when materials were familiar to them would mainly use knowledge to make induction; 2) when materials were unfamiliar but given familiar labels, ll-year-olds would mainly use knowledge to support their induetion while 7-year-olds would use both similarity and knowledge to make generalization.