Reasoning about object categories and properties during early childhood

归纳是我们日常推理中的一个重要部分，它允许我们对新的情况和情况进行超越已知的概括。我的研究集中在基于范畴的归纳推理在婴儿期和学龄前阶段的出现。基于类别的归纳通常涉及以下推理：第一，观察到X具有属性Y(例如，知更鸟可以飞行)；第二，确定X和Z是同一种事物(例如，知更鸟和麻雀都是鸟)；以及第三，推断Z也具有属性Y(例如，因此麻雀可以飞行)。能够推理出同一类别的成员也可能共享属性，使儿童能够理解其环境中对象和实体的巨大多样性，从而提高认知效率，并有机会从过去的经验中受益。我的研究计划的长期目标是描述儿童早期归纳推理的发展和性质，最终目标是开发一个模型，捕捉婴儿和学龄前儿童对新类别和特性的推理。在此期间，我们将进行一系列研究，以解决以下研究问题：1)基于范畴的归纳推理是在婴儿期何时出现的？2)什么因素影响婴儿对新类型新特性的概括意愿？3)语言如何帮助学龄前儿童确定一个物体的哪些属性应该概括，哪些不应该概括？总而言之，这些研究的结果将揭示婴儿和学龄前儿童何时以及如何发展这一非常重要的认知技能。

Induction is an important part of our everyday reasoning, allowing us to generalize beyond what is known to new instances and situations. My research focuses on the emergence of category-based inductive reasoning during the infancy and preschool years. Category-based induction typically involves the following line of reasoning: first, observing that X has the property Y (e.g., a robin can fly); second, deciding that X and Z are the same kind of thing (e.g., a robin and a sparrow are both birds); and third, inferring that Z also has the property Y (e.g., therefore a sparrow can fly). The ability to reason that members of the same category may also share properties allows children to make sense of the great diversity of objects and entities in their environment and leads to cognitive efficiency and the opportunity to benefit from past experiences. The long-term objective of my research program is to characterize the development and nature of inductive reasoning during early childhood, with the ultimate goal of developing a model that captures infants' and preschoolers' inferences about novel categories and properties. During this granting period, we will conduct a series of studies addressing the following research questions: 1) when does category-based inductive reasoning emerge during infancy? 2) what factors influence infants' willingness to generalize novel properties of novel kinds? and 3) how does language help preschoolers determine which properties of an object should be generalized and which should not? Together, the results of these studies will reveal when and how infants and preschoolers develop this very important cognitive skill.