Previous studies using the method of successive touches show that children under fifteen years te... more Previous studies using the method of successive touches show that children under fifteen years tend to take up the objects from the same category in a row, if they represent categories differing on a superordinate level, but do it at random if the difference between the categories is on base level. These results are considered to be the evidence of an earlier development of superordinate categories, compared to the basic ones. In our experiment, we asked the two and three year old children to fulfill an inductive reasoning task after using the method of successive touches. We found that the two-year children after the categorization of objects with the superordinate contrast performed more successfully on inductive inference task than with contrast at a basic level. The three-year children were successful in the implementation of the inductive inference task after any categorization experience. The results prove that the superordinate category in two year old children appear before ...
In this study we replicated (N=77) the effect of a decision making under uncertain categorization... more In this study we replicated (N=77) the effect of a decision making under uncertain categorization (i.e. basing the decision on a few categories simultaneously): when uncertainty was high, participants considered a few categories for a decision more often than when uncertainty was low, therefore, they made rational decisions more often [6]. Moreover, in Chen and colleagues’ study making rational decisions was not affected by the framing of category information. In the next part of our study (N=134) we further measured participants’ level of verbal representation using a scale from adapted version of Internal Representation Questionnaire [14] and found a relationship between framing of the task and rational decisions. Low level of verbal representation was followed by the greatest number of rational decisions in tasks with the choice frame, whereas middle and high levels of verbal representation were accompanied by the biggest number of rational decisions in tasks with the category fr...
Discrepancies in the evidence for the influence of joint attention on lexical acquisition seem to... more Discrepancies in the evidence for the influence of joint attention on lexical acquisition seem to have two causes: the variety of possible lexical acquisition outcomes (formation of an association between an object and a word, or emergence of a unit of the symbolic system) and variety in the contents of joint attention (the act of naming, the using of an object, events involving the object). In this study, we varied the moment when an object was named (familiarization with the object; using the object; removing the object). We suppose that providing children with referential intention cues, which are involved in an object's familiarization, facilitates their discerning of the word as a sign in the symbolic system, in contrast to the joint attention without this component. Based on our results, the choice of an object as a referent of the heard label showed that children established object-label matching in all conditions. The test for the mutual exclusivity phenomenon was passed...
Russian Abstract: В работе подводятся итоги теоретико-экспериментальной дискуссии между двумя изв... more Russian Abstract: В работе подводятся итоги теоретико-экспериментальной дискуссии между двумя известными позициями по поводу различий между двумя видами подражательного поведения. В целом ряде работ было показано, что в некоторых ситуациях дети имитируют поведение другого человека полностью, со всеми промежуточными звеньями (и тогда это называют собственно «имитацией», или «точным подражанием» (faithful imitation)), а в некоторых ситуациях – воспроизводят лишь часть продемонстрированного поведения, как правило, необходимую для достижения показанного результата (тогда используется термин «эмуляция» (emulation) или «избирательное подражание» (selective imitation). Выявлению причин такого положения дел и посвящена данная работа.English Abstract: The paper summarizes the theoretical and experimental discussion between two well-known positions on the differences between the two kinds of imitative behavior. In a number of studies have shown that in some situations, the children imitate the behavior of another person completely, with all intermediates (and then it is called actually «imitation» or «faithful imitation»), and in some situations - reproduce only of the demonstrated behavior is usually necessary to achieve the results shown (if the term «emulation» (emulation) or «selective imitation». Identifying the causes of this situation, which the focus of this work.
In the second year of life, infants are actively interested in objects used by adults, despite th... more In the second year of life, infants are actively interested in objects used by adults, despite the number of experienced difficulties in achieving their goals while handling these objects. What causes the child attempt to handle an object for a designated purpose while watching the adult? One of the evident explanations concerns the effectiveness of the adult’s behavior and the child’s desire to achieve the same result. However, multiple studies have shown that a child is guided not exclusively by the hoped-for result, but also by the adult’s intention. In our study, we verified the reason guiding a child’s choice in an ambiguous condition modeled by situations which contrast intentional and effective adult behavior. We discovered that infants between 17 and 20 months old preferred to copy an adult’s intentional action even if this action did not result in positive outcome, but did not copy an adult’s accidental action, even if the action ended up with an attractive result. However,...
Solving textual algebraic tasks requires finding important mathematical variables in the text and... more Solving textual algebraic tasks requires finding important mathematical variables in the text and turning them into equations. Many students, following their teacher’s advice or at their own initiative, use pictures as a means of better understanding the mathematical structure of the task. In this study we explored which features of pictures were the most essential to the students in finding the appropriate solution based on their experience. We created a set of pictures that differed in parameters of analogy and completeness of relationships between elements. The subjects were asked to evaluate the usefulness of the solution to the initial task (represented by the picture) for solving the target task. As it was revealed, in their evaluations the subjects were more likely to focus on the completeness of the depicted relationships rather than on the analogy of the picture. This tendency was also more evident in experienced subjects as compared to inexpe- rienced ones. The outcomes of...
Subjects were given classic category formation tasks with feedback. We used two types of categori... more Subjects were given classic category formation tasks with feedback. We used two types of categories-statistically dense and statistically sparse. We conducted four experiments to assess the influence of sign type (experiment 1) and the interference of redundant actions performed with the sign (experiment 2) on the performance of learning different types of categories. We found that in the case of dense category formation, the visual distinction of the sign from other object features is more important. In the case of sparse category formation, easy verbalization is more important. Additionally we showed that verbal interference, directed at the actions with the sign, improves sparse category formation, but worsens dense category formation. The results of our experiments are discussed in accordance with the Competition Between Verbal and Implicit Systems (COVIS) model of multiple systems of categorization.
Psychology. Journal of the Higher School of Economics, 2013
In the study, the authors investigated the effect of the words in the categorical perception effe... more In the study, the authors investigated the effect of the words in the categorical perception effect that manifests itself in deterioration of the memorisation of individual characteristics of the objects when they belong to a single category. In the experiment, the subjects memorised the look of their new objects (images of butterflies) that had been previously associated with artificial names. The authors varied the degree of attention of the subjects to objects’ names. In one group, with the pronunciation of names, subjects were instructed that the butterflies were called by two names (artificial words: "tulnitsa" and "daryanka"), and they had to pronounce the names. In the other group, with an indication of the location, in addition to the name the subjects received a clue of where a butterfly would be and had to read aloud only the word for the location. According to the authors’ hypothesis, when accompanying actions with objects words do not always create th...
Psychology. Journal of the Higher School of Economics, 2009
The article examines a suggestion about a mechanism of the effect of excessive imitation. The ess... more The article examines a suggestion about a mechanism of the effect of excessive imitation. The essence of the effect is that when facing a new object demonstrated by a grown up children tend to imitate ineffective way of grown up's behavior, whereas control group of children of the same age which faces an object without grown up's mediation almost always find an effective way of using it accurately. Traditional points of view on the mechanism of this effect are shared by adherents of social explanation (grown up's authority, stereotypes of situation) and by adherents of causal explanation (deformation of representation of causal structure of an object). The experiment held by the authors shows that the effect of excessive imitation to a large extent depends on intentions of a grown up whose actions are observed by a child. It means that deformation of causal structure has its reason, and this reason is, apparently, social by its nature, although not superficially, verball...
Psychology. Journal of the Higher School of Economics, 2016
Objects that fall into one category seem more similar than objects, which differ in their physica... more Objects that fall into one category seem more similar than objects, which differ in their physical parameters to the same extent, but don’t fall into one category. Recent research showed that this categorical perception effect significantly strengthens with giving objects a common name (Kotov et al., 2012; Lupyan, 2008). In the present experiment we intensified categorical perception effect by means of conceptual combinations - definitions, additional to the main name of the category. We compared the manifestation of categorical perception effect in the context of typical combinations (‘Chinese vase’), atypical (‘tasty vase’) and in the context without conceptual combinations (simply ‘vase’). In the beginning the subjects were giving objects, shown to them, categories with or without different types of conceptual combinations, and then memorized additional visual information about objects, which included categorical, i.e. frequent, and individual, i.e. rare qualities. As a result of...
Many psychological theories attempt to explain the mechanisms that govern cognition in adults, an... more Many psychological theories attempt to explain the mechanisms that govern cognition in adults, and fewer theories attempt to explain also how cognitive mechanisms change across development. Even fewer theories provide a brain representation of mechanisms related to cognitive development. One such theory is the Theory of Constructive Operators. In this review, we present key components of this general theory and provide quantitative predictions for the development of core cognitive abilities such a mental-attentional capacity. Specifically, the model of endogenous mental attention presents a domain-free resource that increases in power during childhood and adolescence. Mental-attentional capacity grows concurrently with prefrontal brain regions and is a fundamental factor that contributes to individual differences in cognitive abilities. We provide examples of a sophisticated method of meta-subjective task analysis that can serve as a tool for evaluating the mental demand of a task. ...
Russian Abstract: Категориальные названия влияют на суждения людей относительно неизвестных явлен... more Russian Abstract: Категориальные названия влияют на суждения людей относительно неизвестных явлений – если незнакомому явлению дается название, оно оценивается как более стабильное, имеющее естественные причины для существования. Однако неизвестно, является ли этот эффект долговременным и проявляется ли он только при сопровождении явления категориальным названием, либо действителен для других лингвистических параметров, например, метафорических названий. Данная работа изучает категориальное название для новой ситуации, как общий когнитивный фактор, который может похожим образом влиять на оценку суждений и вызывать определенные предубеждения по отношению к явлениям. English Abstract: Categorical names influence people's judgments about unknown phenomena - if an unknown phenomenon is given a name, it is assessed as more stable, having natural reasons for existence. However, it is not known whether this effect is long-term and whether it manifests itself only when the phenomenon is...
Previous studies using the method of successive touches show that children under fifteen years te... more Previous studies using the method of successive touches show that children under fifteen years tend to take up the objects from the same category in a row, if they represent categories differing on a superordinate level, but do it at random if the difference between the categories is on base level. These results are considered to be the evidence of an earlier development of superordinate categories, compared to the basic ones. In our experiment, we asked the two and three year old children to fulfill an inductive reasoning task after using the method of successive touches. We found that the two-year children after the categorization of objects with the superordinate contrast performed more successfully on inductive inference task than with contrast at a basic level. The three-year children were successful in the implementation of the inductive inference task after any categorization experience. The results prove that the superordinate category in two year old children appear before ...
In this study we replicated (N=77) the effect of a decision making under uncertain categorization... more In this study we replicated (N=77) the effect of a decision making under uncertain categorization (i.e. basing the decision on a few categories simultaneously): when uncertainty was high, participants considered a few categories for a decision more often than when uncertainty was low, therefore, they made rational decisions more often [6]. Moreover, in Chen and colleagues’ study making rational decisions was not affected by the framing of category information. In the next part of our study (N=134) we further measured participants’ level of verbal representation using a scale from adapted version of Internal Representation Questionnaire [14] and found a relationship between framing of the task and rational decisions. Low level of verbal representation was followed by the greatest number of rational decisions in tasks with the choice frame, whereas middle and high levels of verbal representation were accompanied by the biggest number of rational decisions in tasks with the category fr...
Discrepancies in the evidence for the influence of joint attention on lexical acquisition seem to... more Discrepancies in the evidence for the influence of joint attention on lexical acquisition seem to have two causes: the variety of possible lexical acquisition outcomes (formation of an association between an object and a word, or emergence of a unit of the symbolic system) and variety in the contents of joint attention (the act of naming, the using of an object, events involving the object). In this study, we varied the moment when an object was named (familiarization with the object; using the object; removing the object). We suppose that providing children with referential intention cues, which are involved in an object's familiarization, facilitates their discerning of the word as a sign in the symbolic system, in contrast to the joint attention without this component. Based on our results, the choice of an object as a referent of the heard label showed that children established object-label matching in all conditions. The test for the mutual exclusivity phenomenon was passed...
Russian Abstract: В работе подводятся итоги теоретико-экспериментальной дискуссии между двумя изв... more Russian Abstract: В работе подводятся итоги теоретико-экспериментальной дискуссии между двумя известными позициями по поводу различий между двумя видами подражательного поведения. В целом ряде работ было показано, что в некоторых ситуациях дети имитируют поведение другого человека полностью, со всеми промежуточными звеньями (и тогда это называют собственно «имитацией», или «точным подражанием» (faithful imitation)), а в некоторых ситуациях – воспроизводят лишь часть продемонстрированного поведения, как правило, необходимую для достижения показанного результата (тогда используется термин «эмуляция» (emulation) или «избирательное подражание» (selective imitation). Выявлению причин такого положения дел и посвящена данная работа.English Abstract: The paper summarizes the theoretical and experimental discussion between two well-known positions on the differences between the two kinds of imitative behavior. In a number of studies have shown that in some situations, the children imitate the behavior of another person completely, with all intermediates (and then it is called actually «imitation» or «faithful imitation»), and in some situations - reproduce only of the demonstrated behavior is usually necessary to achieve the results shown (if the term «emulation» (emulation) or «selective imitation». Identifying the causes of this situation, which the focus of this work.
In the second year of life, infants are actively interested in objects used by adults, despite th... more In the second year of life, infants are actively interested in objects used by adults, despite the number of experienced difficulties in achieving their goals while handling these objects. What causes the child attempt to handle an object for a designated purpose while watching the adult? One of the evident explanations concerns the effectiveness of the adult’s behavior and the child’s desire to achieve the same result. However, multiple studies have shown that a child is guided not exclusively by the hoped-for result, but also by the adult’s intention. In our study, we verified the reason guiding a child’s choice in an ambiguous condition modeled by situations which contrast intentional and effective adult behavior. We discovered that infants between 17 and 20 months old preferred to copy an adult’s intentional action even if this action did not result in positive outcome, but did not copy an adult’s accidental action, even if the action ended up with an attractive result. However,...
Solving textual algebraic tasks requires finding important mathematical variables in the text and... more Solving textual algebraic tasks requires finding important mathematical variables in the text and turning them into equations. Many students, following their teacher’s advice or at their own initiative, use pictures as a means of better understanding the mathematical structure of the task. In this study we explored which features of pictures were the most essential to the students in finding the appropriate solution based on their experience. We created a set of pictures that differed in parameters of analogy and completeness of relationships between elements. The subjects were asked to evaluate the usefulness of the solution to the initial task (represented by the picture) for solving the target task. As it was revealed, in their evaluations the subjects were more likely to focus on the completeness of the depicted relationships rather than on the analogy of the picture. This tendency was also more evident in experienced subjects as compared to inexpe- rienced ones. The outcomes of...
Subjects were given classic category formation tasks with feedback. We used two types of categori... more Subjects were given classic category formation tasks with feedback. We used two types of categories-statistically dense and statistically sparse. We conducted four experiments to assess the influence of sign type (experiment 1) and the interference of redundant actions performed with the sign (experiment 2) on the performance of learning different types of categories. We found that in the case of dense category formation, the visual distinction of the sign from other object features is more important. In the case of sparse category formation, easy verbalization is more important. Additionally we showed that verbal interference, directed at the actions with the sign, improves sparse category formation, but worsens dense category formation. The results of our experiments are discussed in accordance with the Competition Between Verbal and Implicit Systems (COVIS) model of multiple systems of categorization.
Psychology. Journal of the Higher School of Economics, 2013
In the study, the authors investigated the effect of the words in the categorical perception effe... more In the study, the authors investigated the effect of the words in the categorical perception effect that manifests itself in deterioration of the memorisation of individual characteristics of the objects when they belong to a single category. In the experiment, the subjects memorised the look of their new objects (images of butterflies) that had been previously associated with artificial names. The authors varied the degree of attention of the subjects to objects’ names. In one group, with the pronunciation of names, subjects were instructed that the butterflies were called by two names (artificial words: "tulnitsa" and "daryanka"), and they had to pronounce the names. In the other group, with an indication of the location, in addition to the name the subjects received a clue of where a butterfly would be and had to read aloud only the word for the location. According to the authors’ hypothesis, when accompanying actions with objects words do not always create th...
Psychology. Journal of the Higher School of Economics, 2009
The article examines a suggestion about a mechanism of the effect of excessive imitation. The ess... more The article examines a suggestion about a mechanism of the effect of excessive imitation. The essence of the effect is that when facing a new object demonstrated by a grown up children tend to imitate ineffective way of grown up's behavior, whereas control group of children of the same age which faces an object without grown up's mediation almost always find an effective way of using it accurately. Traditional points of view on the mechanism of this effect are shared by adherents of social explanation (grown up's authority, stereotypes of situation) and by adherents of causal explanation (deformation of representation of causal structure of an object). The experiment held by the authors shows that the effect of excessive imitation to a large extent depends on intentions of a grown up whose actions are observed by a child. It means that deformation of causal structure has its reason, and this reason is, apparently, social by its nature, although not superficially, verball...
Psychology. Journal of the Higher School of Economics, 2016
Objects that fall into one category seem more similar than objects, which differ in their physica... more Objects that fall into one category seem more similar than objects, which differ in their physical parameters to the same extent, but don’t fall into one category. Recent research showed that this categorical perception effect significantly strengthens with giving objects a common name (Kotov et al., 2012; Lupyan, 2008). In the present experiment we intensified categorical perception effect by means of conceptual combinations - definitions, additional to the main name of the category. We compared the manifestation of categorical perception effect in the context of typical combinations (‘Chinese vase’), atypical (‘tasty vase’) and in the context without conceptual combinations (simply ‘vase’). In the beginning the subjects were giving objects, shown to them, categories with or without different types of conceptual combinations, and then memorized additional visual information about objects, which included categorical, i.e. frequent, and individual, i.e. rare qualities. As a result of...
Many psychological theories attempt to explain the mechanisms that govern cognition in adults, an... more Many psychological theories attempt to explain the mechanisms that govern cognition in adults, and fewer theories attempt to explain also how cognitive mechanisms change across development. Even fewer theories provide a brain representation of mechanisms related to cognitive development. One such theory is the Theory of Constructive Operators. In this review, we present key components of this general theory and provide quantitative predictions for the development of core cognitive abilities such a mental-attentional capacity. Specifically, the model of endogenous mental attention presents a domain-free resource that increases in power during childhood and adolescence. Mental-attentional capacity grows concurrently with prefrontal brain regions and is a fundamental factor that contributes to individual differences in cognitive abilities. We provide examples of a sophisticated method of meta-subjective task analysis that can serve as a tool for evaluating the mental demand of a task. ...
Russian Abstract: Категориальные названия влияют на суждения людей относительно неизвестных явлен... more Russian Abstract: Категориальные названия влияют на суждения людей относительно неизвестных явлений – если незнакомому явлению дается название, оно оценивается как более стабильное, имеющее естественные причины для существования. Однако неизвестно, является ли этот эффект долговременным и проявляется ли он только при сопровождении явления категориальным названием, либо действителен для других лингвистических параметров, например, метафорических названий. Данная работа изучает категориальное название для новой ситуации, как общий когнитивный фактор, который может похожим образом влиять на оценку суждений и вызывать определенные предубеждения по отношению к явлениям. English Abstract: Categorical names influence people's judgments about unknown phenomena - if an unknown phenomenon is given a name, it is assessed as more stable, having natural reasons for existence. However, it is not known whether this effect is long-term and whether it manifests itself only when the phenomenon is...
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