When Mats Meow: Phonological Similarity of Labels and Induction in Young Children

The ability to make inductive inferences is crucial for humans, and it has long been demonstrated that labels play an important role in induction. However, the mechanism by which labels contribute to induction remained unclear. According to one theoretical position, often referred to as the naïve theory, even for young children labels presented as count nouns are special properties: even young children understand that count nouns denote categories, communicating what the things are (Keil, et al, 1998; Gelman & Coley, 1991). According to a recently proposed alternative model SINC (Similarity, Induction and Categorization in Children), children perform induction on the basis of the overall similarity among compared entities, and labels are features contributing to the overall similarity (Sloutsky & Fisher, in press). If labels are features contributing to the overall similarity then not only identical, but phonologically similar labels should contribute to the overall similarity, and therefore to induction. This research was designed to test this prediction of SINC, which, if supported would present challenges to the naïve theory position. Results of two experiments supported the prediction.