Interpreting inclusion: A contribution to the study of the child's cognitive and linguistic development

doi:10.1016/0022-0965(78)90131-5

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

Volume 26, Issue 3, December 1978, Pages 528-550

https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-0965(78)90131-5 Get rights and content

Abstract

Six experiments are reported which examine the young child's ability to compare included and nonincluded sets. Results indicate that with certain forms of task presentation most 3- to 5-year-old children can compare part with whole. Further, errors which occur in inclusion tasks are similar to errors which occur in tasks involving comparison of nonincluded sets. Thus young children can solve inclusion problems, and their customary failure to do so does not arise because the problem requires comparison of a whole with an included part. Employing a distinction between intended tasks (those which the adult wishes the child to complete) and received tasks (those which the child, in fact, completes) the studies indicate how linguistic and perceptual aspects of the presented information may interact with the child's assumptions about the nature of the task to be completed.

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^☆: The experiments reported here were conceived, conducted, analysed and written up in draft form by James McGarrigle, University of Edinburgh. Before they could be completed in a form suitable for publication, James McGarrigle died on 4 June, 1975, aged 27. The present paper is based mainly on a draft of his doctoral dissertation, supplemented by reference to his published papers (McGarrigle & Donaldson, 1975; Donaldson & McGarrigle, 1974). In preparing the present paper the advice and encouragement of Margaret Donaldson have been of great benefit.

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Interpreting inclusion: A contribution to the study of the child's cognitive and linguistic development☆

Abstract

Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior

Cognitive Psychology

Cognition

Cognitive Psychology

Reasons for failure on the class inclusion problem

Child Development

The conservation of a shape property and a proposal about the origin of the conservations

Canadian Journal of Psychology

Training and transfer of transitivity, conservation and class inclusion of length

Child Development

Sentences and situations: Children's judgements of match and mismatch

Some clues to the nature of semantic development

Journal of Child Language

The child's conception of the experimenter

The early growth of logic in the child

The effect of verbal and pictorial presentation on class-inclusion competence and performance

Psychonomic Science