The article by Gelman and Markman explores how young children, particularly preschoolers, use natural kind categories to support inductive inferences. Natural kind terms, such as "tiger" or "gold," are expected to share important, unforeseen properties, and inductions can be made without perceptual support. The study investigates whether children rely on category membership or perceptual similarity when making inferences. Key findings include: 1. **Category Membership vs. Perceptual Similarity**: Children, even at a young age (around 4 years old), can use category membership to guide inductive inferences, even when it conflicts with perceptual similarity. For example, they can infer that a shark, labeled as a fish, breathes underwater like a tropical fish, despite looking more like a dolphin. 2. **Differentiation of Properties**: Young children can differentiate between properties that support induction within a category (e.g., means of breathing) and those determined by perceptual appearances (e.g., weight). 3. **Developmental Progression**: Children's reliance on category membership increases over time. In Study 3, fewer children consistently based their judgments on perceptual similarity, suggesting a gradual refinement of their expectations. 4. **Synonyms and Subset-Superset Relations**: Children can use synonyms or subset-superset relations to indicate common category membership, indicating that linguistic information is not necessary for inductive inferences. 5. **Arbitrary Decisions**: Children do not rely on category membership for arbitrary decisions, such as choosing a color marker, even when the task involves category labels. The study suggests that young children have a sophisticated understanding of category structure and can use it to make inductive inferences, despite their limited scientific knowledge and reliance on perceptual appearances. This finding challenges the view that children's thinking is strongly influenced by superficial perceptual cues.The article by Gelman and Markman explores how young children, particularly preschoolers, use natural kind categories to support inductive inferences. Natural kind terms, such as "tiger" or "gold," are expected to share important, unforeseen properties, and inductions can be made without perceptual support. The study investigates whether children rely on category membership or perceptual similarity when making inferences. Key findings include: 1. **Category Membership vs. Perceptual Similarity**: Children, even at a young age (around 4 years old), can use category membership to guide inductive inferences, even when it conflicts with perceptual similarity. For example, they can infer that a shark, labeled as a fish, breathes underwater like a tropical fish, despite looking more like a dolphin. 2. **Differentiation of Properties**: Young children can differentiate between properties that support induction within a category (e.g., means of breathing) and those determined by perceptual appearances (e.g., weight). 3. **Developmental Progression**: Children's reliance on category membership increases over time. In Study 3, fewer children consistently based their judgments on perceptual similarity, suggesting a gradual refinement of their expectations. 4. **Synonyms and Subset-Superset Relations**: Children can use synonyms or subset-superset relations to indicate common category membership, indicating that linguistic information is not necessary for inductive inferences. 5. **Arbitrary Decisions**: Children do not rely on category membership for arbitrary decisions, such as choosing a color marker, even when the task involves category labels. The study suggests that young children have a sophisticated understanding of category structure and can use it to make inductive inferences, despite their limited scientific knowledge and reliance on perceptual appearances. This finding challenges the view that children's thinking is strongly influenced by superficial perceptual cues.