Food as a borderline domain of knowledge: The development of domain-specific inductive reasoning strategies in young children

This study investigated how young children's inductive reasoning abilities pertain to the food domain in comparison with the natural kind and artifact domains. Two research hypotheses were tested: H1) Younger children (4-5 years) exhibit less differentiated inductive reasoning strategies between natural kind, food, and artifact domains of knowledge than older children (6-7 years) and H2) induction strategies are impacted by the degree of processing of the food (i.e. unprocessed, sliced, and pureed). Younger (n = 44, 4-5 years) and older children (n = 52, 6-7 years) were tested as well as a control group of adults (n = 48). Results confirmed H1) and only partial results obtained from older children (6-7 years) spoke in favor of H2). We conclude that these pieces of evidence cast a reasonable doubt on the shared assumption that foods are natural kind entities, and consequently open new research avenues for evidence-based food education programs.