Category Learning in Schoolchildren. Its Relation to Age, Academic Marks and Resolution Patterns.

Publisher: Cambridge University Press Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 101095192 Publication Model: Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1988-2904 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 11387416 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Span J Psychol Subsets: MEDLINE

Publication: 2013- : Cambridge : Cambridge University Press
Original Publication: Madrid : Faculty of Psychology, Complutense University of Madrid, c1998-

Academic Success* ; Students* ; Task Performance and Analysis*; Child Behavior/*physiology ; Child Development/*physiology ; Concept Formation/*physiology ; Learning/*physiology; Age Factors ; Child ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Reaction Time/physiology

The aim of this research was to study the learning process using an objective and computerized task. The performance of 466 schoolchildren aged between 6 and 11 in a category learning task, the Category Learning Test (CLT), was examined. The results showed evidence of category learning throughout the trials for the whole sample, F(7, 469) = 29.979, p <.001. In addition, categorization performance improved with age, H(2) = 48.475, p <.001. However, there were old children that struggled with the task and young children that performed very well. The ability to learn the categories was related to the children's behavior when trying to solve the task: the response speed (r = -.217, p <.01) and the organization index (r = .247, p <.01). Nevertheless, performance in the task and academic marks were not related. We discuss the impact of these findings on the promotion and improvement of learning in schools: an intervention to promote slowness and organization might help some children to learn.

Keywords: category learning; execution patterns; response speed; schoolchildren

Date Created: 20191127 Date Completed: 20200624 Latest Revision: 20200624

20231215

10.1017/sjp.2019.56

31767046