Behavioral and Brain Sciences

Table of Contents - 2008 - Volume 31, Issue 06  

Open Peer Commentary

On the semantics of infant categorization and why infants perceive horses as humans

Paul C. Quinna1

a1 Department of Psychology, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716. pquinn@udel.edu http://w3.psych.udel.edu/people/faculty/quinn.asp

Abstract

This commentary considers the issues of what should be taken as evidence for semantic categorization in infants and why infants display a surprising asymmetry in the categorization of humans versus nonhuman animals. It is argued that perceptual knowledge should be viewed as a potent source of information for semantic categorization, and that the asymmetrical categorization behavior arises as a consequence of the frequency and similarity structure of experience.

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