The Language of Categories and Thinking

This week’s edition of the New Scientist has an interesting article on how we talk to ourselves (Your Inner Voice).

Several pieces of research point out just how crucial the language of categories is to our thinking. While labeling individual items is a factor in the development of our intelligence, that of categories is stronger still.

Infants, for example, are more effective at grouping objects if they already have the names for the categories. It’s as if having the category names greatly aids the thinking involved in sorting the actual objects. And in another study, youngsters were better at spatial reasoning if armed with prepositions.

Equally, adults who have lost their language skills through having a stroke are no longer as able to categorise objects.

Furthermore, memory is also affected by the acquisition of category words as memory itself is, by nature, categorical. We tend not to remember specific details.

So what does this mean for schools? For a start review the foolish devaluing of categorizing as mere information processing: a so–called lower order thinking skill. And realise that it’s a life–long task to master the skill.

After all, just because a toddler is able to sort toy animals from toy vehicles doesn’t mean they no longer need to be explicitly taught to categorise.

And what better way to learn to categorise with increasingly complex subject matter than with model maps? The visual and spatial structures are perfect for discussion and deep reasoning.