Classification and hypothesis formulation: a descriptive study of variability in two problem-solving tasks in preschool boys and girls

This article aims to analyze the performance of 20 preschool children in two problem-solving tasks that involve the use of classification and the formulation of hypotheses, respectively. The participants are between 4 and 5 years old enrolled in a Kindergarten in the municipality of Florida, Valle-Colombia. The results showed that preschool student’s use of these cognitive functions is not limited by age, nor by a logical structure that defines them, but rather they use different strategies in solving the same task. This is the case of the classification stage where they used a great variety of categoriesto classify, based on conceptual and perceptual criteria. Regarding the formulation of hypotheses, the participants showed that they have different explanations for the same phenomenon since physical evidence was not the determining factor in their performance, but they also used their previous experiences to formulate their hypotheses. In this way, it is concluded that variability is closely related to change
since it is a precise empirical explicit and visible indicator of the nature of cognitive change.