Abstract: This experiment was conducted in the attempt to understand the development of hierarchical classification of children. children from the age of 3to 6 were given matching tasks with either basic-level or superordinate relations of different perceptual similarity. The result indicated:(1)Even 3-yearold children could consistently sort at the basic level. However,children perform poorly at the superordinate level,and there were developmental differences in the ability to sort at this level.Till age 6,they began to sort based on categories.(2)The perceptual similarity of materials is a very important factor which appears to contribute to children′s matching at superordinate level.(3)Matching and reason are two valuable indexes for the study of children′ability to classifiy and researchers should pay attention to the perceptual similarity of materials.

Key words: children from aged 3 to 6, Basic level category, Superordinate level category, Match Perceptual similarity