Do Children find Collection Versions of Part‐Whole Comparisons Easier than Class Versions?

Abstract

Children find some class inclusion problems easier than others. Why and when this happens is not well established. Several studies have found children do better when the whole is described by a collective noun than when it is described as a class. There are two reasons for doubting the generality of these results: only children who had failed class inclusion tests took part and harder versions of class inclusion tasks were used. Sixty‐four first and second grade Yemeni children were tested on class and collection versions of part‐whole comparisons. They were asked to justify their judgments. The children judged better on collection versions than class versions and there was no difference in the proportion of logical justifications. They also found class inclusion tasks easier when there was no word common to the descriptions of the whole class and the subclasses.