Culture, domain specificity and conceptual change: Natural kind and artifact concepts

The work reported here is a sociocultural investigation of the domain speci ficity of conceptual change, focusing on natural kind and artifact concepts . Participants from rural, urban and elite groups among the Yoruba of weste rn Nigeria judged the identity of familiar natural kinds and artifacts that had undergone superficial transformations, and provided explanations for t heir category judgments. The social and material conditions typifying each group of participants were hypothesized to affect differentially the race a nd degree of conceptual change. The results indicated that the most marked developmental change occurred in the rural group. Overall, the results supp ort the domain specificity of conceptual change as found in studies with Am erican participants, and underscore the need for. closer examination of soc io-cultural factors influencing such change.