From seeing to thinking: Reply to Mandler

In her commentary on our article, Mandler (1999) argues that our notion of a single of process of categorization that operates on increasingly abstrac t or conceptual information as it becomes available is incorrect. Specifica lly, she argues against two aspects of our view. First, she characterizes o ur view of categorization as moving from concrete to abstract. Mandler indi cates that we have not dealt adequately with literature demonstrating what she sees as a trend for infants' first forming abstract categories and late r forming more specific ones. In fact, our view is not characterized by a s hift from one type of category to another, but by gradual changes in the ki nds of information infants can use in the process of forming categories, Se cond, she argues against our position that there is a single categorical pr ocess that uses different types of information. In this response, we rephra se these questions to emphasize the process of categorization and clarify o ur position by responding to these questions. (C) 1999 Academic Press.