Development of Conceptual Flexibility in Intuitive Biology: Effects of Environment and Experience.

ABSTRACT: Living things can be classified in many ways, such as taxonomic similarity (lions and lynx), or shared ecological habitat (ducks and turtles). The present studies used card-sorting and triad tasks to explore developmental and experiential changes in conceptual flexibility-the ability to switch between taxonomic and ecological construals of living things-as well as two processes underlying conceptual flexibility: salience (i.e., the ease with which relations come to mind outside of contextual influences) and availability (i.e., the presence of relations in one's mental space) of taxonomic and ecological relations. We were also interested in the extent to which salience and availability of taxonomic and ecological relations predicted inductive inferences. Participants we

SUBMITTER: Betz N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7525208 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature