Flexible Attention to Labels and Appearances in Early Induction

Young children have been demonstrated to rely on both labeling and appearance information when performing induction. According to some accounts, labels are more conceptually important than appearances. According to others, reliance on labels and appearances stems from a lowlevel attentional mechanism. The latter, but not the former, predicts flexible attentional shifts in reliance on labels or appearances. Results of the two reported experiments indicate that attention to labels and appearances can be flexibly modified through associative training, thus supporting the latter, but not the former account.