Abstract

The first purpose of this study was to investigate the order of thematic organization and taxonomic organization. The second purpose was to investigate the strength of link of thematic and taxonomic knowledge. In experiment 1, The multi-dimensionnal sorting method was used to investigate the development of conceptual organization for 4-year-old Korean children. The degree of difficulty of this multi-dimensional method was lowered. The result was that thematic organization was developed earlier than taxonomic organization. In experiment 2, that the effect of priming stimulus was compared which is related to target stimulus thematically or taxonomically in Korean and Japanese 5-year-old children and colleger. The correct response rate of relatedness for thematic pair was higher than taxonomic pair in both of Korean and Japanese preschooler, but neither in Korean and Japanese colleger. The reaction time was not significantly different judging the relatedness regarding thematic pair and taxonomic pair in both of Korean and Japanese preschooler and colleger. The results of second experiment suggest that the strength of the link of thematic pair is not stronger than taxonomic pair nevertheless of the earlier development of thematic knowledge in preschooler.