Dissociation between Categorization and Similarity Judgments (original) (raw)
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Memory & Cognition, 2002
A dissociation between categorization and similarity was found by . In one experiment, Rips found that a stimulus halfway between a pizza and a quarter was categorized as a pizza but was rated as more similar to a quarter. Smith and Sloman (1994) discussed these results in terms of the role of necessary and characteristic features. In two experiments, participants had to learn to categorize novel artificial shapes composed of a nonsalient necessary feature combined with a salient characteristic feature. Participants categorized stimuli on the basis of a necessary feature, whereas their similarity judgments relied on characteristic features. The role of deep (essential) features in dissociations is considered. Results are discussed in terms of the differences between requirements of categorization and similarity judgments.
The Influence of Stimulus Properties on Category Construction
Journal of Experimental Psychology-learning Memory and Cognition, 2004
It has been demonstrated that when people free classify stimuli presented simultaneously in an array, they have a preference to categorize by a single dimension. However, when people are encouraged to categorize items sequentially, they sort by "family resemblance," grouping by overall similarity. The present studies extended this research, producing 3 main findings. First, the sequential procedure introduced by G. Regehr and L. R. Brooks (1995) does not always produce a preference for family resemblance sorts. Second, sort strategy in a sequential procedure is sensitive to subtle variations in stimulus properties. Third, spatially separable stimuli evoked more family resemblance sorts than stimuli of greater spatial integration. It is suggested that the family resemblance sorting observed is due to an analytic strategy. Monsell for their helpful comments and suggestions on earlier versions of this article. We also thank Lee Brooks and an anonymous reviewer for their invaluable suggestions.
Similarity and Categorization.'
1997
The intuitive idea that we classify together those things that we find similar has had a chequered history in psychology. While there was considerable theoretical and empirical development of similarity-based classification models in the 1970s (Medin & Schaffer, 1978; Rosch, 1975), subsequently there has been what might be termed a "rationalist backlash" against these models. In particular a number of researchers have questioned the degree to which the notion of similarity is sufficiently clearly defined and constrained to serve as an explanation of categorization.
Category variability, exemplar similarity, and perceptual classification
Memory & Cognition, 2001
Experiments were conducted in which observers learned to classify simple perceptual stimuli into low-variability and high-variability categories. Similarities between objects were measured in independent psychological-scalingtasks. The results showed that observers classified transfer stimuli into the high-variability categories with greater probability than was predicted by a baseline version of an exemplar-similarity model. Qualitative evidence for the role of category variability on perceptual classification, which could not be explained in terms of the baseline exemplar-similaritymodel, was obtained as well. Possible accounts of the effects of category variability are considered in the General Discussion section.
Category Labels Highlight Feature Interrelatedness in Similarity Judgment
Advanced Materials, 2009
When objects carry the same or different label(s), our perception of the similarity of the objects changes. How does this happen? In two experiments, pictures of animal tissues were presented with fictitious labels and participants judged the similarity of the pictures. The perceived similarity increased when the fictitious labels highlight the interrelatedness of features; this effect of labels was absent when the interrelatedness was not obvious. The results demonstrated that category labels clarify interrelatedness of features, and modify our perception of similarity.
Developmental Psychology, 2012
Our goal in the present study was to evaluate the claim that category labels affect children's judgments of visual similarity. We presented preschool children with discriminable and identical sets of animal pictures and asked them to make perceptual judgments in the presence or absence of labels. Our findings indicate that children who are asked to make perceptual judgments about identical items judge discriminable items less accurately when making subsequent similarity judgments. Thus, labels do not generally affect children's perceptual similarity judgments; rather, children's reliance on labels to make similarity judgments appears to be attributable to flaws in the methodological approaches used in prior studies. These results have implications for the role of perceptual and conceptual information in children's categorization and induction.
The role of similarity in categorization: Providing a groundwork
1994
Abstract The relation between similarity and categorization has recently come under scrutiny from several sectors. The issue provides an important inroad to questions about the contributions of high-level thought and lower-level perception in the development of people's concepts. Many psychological models base categorization on similarity, assuming that things belong in the same category because of their similarity.
Stimulus generalization and equivalence classes: a model for natural categories
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 1991
Two three-member classes were formed by training AB and BC using a conditional discrimination procedure. The A and B stimuli were nonsense syllables, and the C stimuli were sets of "short" or "long" lines. To test for equivalence, Cl or C2 was presented as a sample with Al and A2 as comparisons. Once the class-related comparison was chosen consistently, different line lengths were substituted for the training lines in the CA tests. In general, the likelihood of choosing a given comparison was an inverse function of the difference in the length of the test line from the training line. Stimuli in an equivalence class became functionally related not only to each other but also to novel stimuli that rcsembled a member of the equivalence class. The combination of primary generalization and equivalence class formation, then, can serve as a model to account for the development of naturally occurring categories.
Comparison and contrast in perceptual categorization.
2005
Abstract 1. People categorized pairs of perceptual stimuli that varied in both category membership and pairwise similarity. Experiments 1 and 2 showed categorization of 1 color of a pair to be reliably contrasted from that of the other. This similarity-based contrast effect occurred only when the context stimulus was relevant for the categorization of the target (Experiment 3). The effect was not simply owing to perceptual color contrast (Experiment 4), and it extended to pictures from common semantic categories (Experiment 5).