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open access
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ISSN : 1229-0718
This study examines whether preschoolers use trait label information to make inferences about people, even when it conflicts with highly salient perceptual information and investigates preschoolers' use of trait label information according to their age and task variables(the level of perceptual similarity and the familiarity of trait labels). 32 three-year-olds, 32 4-year-olds and 32 5-year-olds saw photographs of three different children and were asked to predict whether one of the children would share properties with a child who has the same trait label but is dissimilar in appearance, or with a child who has a different trait label but is similar in appearance. The result shows that preschoolers view trait label information as an important source of information about people. Children as young as 4 years of age treat the trait labels as more informative than appearance information when making inferences about people's psychological properties. Furthermore, results suggest that the level of perceptual similarity in task affects preschoolers' use of trait label vs appearance information.
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