CATEGORIZATION IN EARLY INFANCY AND THE CONTINUITY OF DEVELOPMENT

Arguments and evidence are presented for the conclusion that the young infant's perceptually based categorical representations for natural k inds - animals in this case - are the basis for their mature conceptua l counterparts. In addition, it is argued that conceptual development is continuous in nature and without the need for special developmental processes. A consideration of the development of the syllabic, segmen tal, and featural categories of phonology shows a more complex pattern of change - one marked by both continuities and discontinuities in th e representations themselves and the processes that produce them.