Description
Background
Categorization and conceptualization are central cognitive mechanisms, that enable children to make sense of the world, generalize experiences and communicate effectively (Concepts and Categorization: Systematic and Historical Perspectives, 2016). Aesthetic categories, such as “art”, “literature” and “music”, lack unambiguous definitions and vary greatly in their perceptive qualities (Ranta, 2002). Adult Westerners appear to have informal concepts allowing them to reliably identify art and communicate effectively about it. Conceptual development begins in childhood (Westermann & Mareschal, 2014) and depend on the nature and function of the object (Bloom, 1996; Hawley-Dolan & Winner, 2011). While there are many studies focusing on childhood development of various categories, few examine the categorization of aesthetic objects.
Aims
We aim to investigate the development of categorization of aesthetic artefacts through an object naming task. We hypothesize, that children acquire labels for utility-categories before aesthetic categories, both in labeling through aspects and in naming of superordinate categories.
Method
157 participants (children 3 to 8-years old, n = 124, adults n = 33) were presented with 12 visual, speech and sound stimuli consisting of 6 aesthetic (music, literature, visual art) and 6 non-aesthetic control stimuli framed as intentionally and carefully created. Answers were directed to the extraterrestrial “Blubby”, allowing participants to feel comfortable giving basic information to seemingly easy questions. Participants were asked to label and assign functions to the artefacts by asking them: “What is it?” and “Why did the person make it?”. Answers were coded into whole stimulus descriptions, aspects of the stimulus and “don’t know”-answers. These answer categories were tested in association to age group in chi-square-tests.
Results
“Don’t know”-answers to aesthetic artefacts decrease significantly with age. In comparison to non-aesthetic objects children give “don’t know”-answers more often towards aesthetic ones, however, this association is not maintained over age. The older children get, the more they can relate to the aesthetic objects, associate descriptions, and label aesthetic artefacts with art related terms.
Discussion and Conclusion
Children show a significant increase in their labeling abilities of aesthetic artefacts with age. By age 7-8 years children reach adult-like levels in labeling non-aesthetic artefacts, however no age group reached adult-like levels in labeling aesthetic artefacts.
References
Bloom, P. (1996). Intention, history, and artifact concepts. Cognition, 60, 1-29.
Concepts and Categorization: Systematic and Historical Perspectives. (2016). (D. Hommen, C. Kann, & T. Oswald, Eds.). mentis Verlag GmbH.
Hawley-Dolan, A., & Winner, E. (2011). Seeing the Mind Behind the Art: People Can Distinguish Abstract Expressionist Paintings From Highly Similar Paintings by Children, Chimps, Monkeys, and Elephants. Psychological Science, 22(4), 435-441. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797611400915
Ranta, M. (2002). Categorization Research and the Concept of Art - An Empirical and Psychological Approach. Nordisk estetisk tidskrift, 25-26, 13-25.
Westermann, G., & Mareschal, D. (2014). From perceptual to language-mediated categorization. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci, 369(1634), 20120391. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2012.0391
| Names, affilations and contact information | Charlotte Sänger (charlotte.saenger@ae.mpg.de), Alina Isfeldt (alina.isfeldt@ae.mpg.de), Franziska Degé (franziska.dege@ae.mpg.de), Ines Schindler (ines.schindler@ae.mpg.de) |
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| Bio | Alina Isfeldt is doing her Master’s degree in musicology at the University of Cologne. They are currently finishing her Master's degree in cooperation with the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics. Their main interests are in the effect aesthetic experiences have on cognitive development and mental health. Charlotte Sänger is a master student in psychology at Julius-Maximilians-University Würzburg and is currently writing her Master’s thesis at Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics on the acquisition of aesthetic concepts in children. Her research interests include aesthetic experiences, perception of ambiguity in art and how cognitive concepts shape our understanding of the environment. |