Basic-level visual similarity and category specificity

The role of visual crowding in category deficits has been widely discussed (e.g.,;; ). Most studies have measured overlap at the superordinate level (compare different examples of 'animal') rather than at the basic level (compare different examples of 'dog'). In this study, we therefore derived two measures of basic-level overlap for a range of categories. The first was a computational measure generated by a self-organising neural network trained to process pictures of living and non-living things; the second was a rating of perceived visual similarity generated by human subjects to the item names. The computational measure indicated that the pattern of crowded/uncrowded does not honour a living/non-living distinction. Nevertheless, different superordinates showed varied degrees of basic-level overlap, suggesting that specific token choice affects some superordinates more than others e.g., individual fruit and vegetable tokens show greater variability than any other items, while tools and vehicles produce more reliable or overlapping basic-level visual representations. Finally, subject ratings correlated significantly with the computational measures indicating that the neural model represents structural properties of the objects that are psychologically meaningful.     

The contribution of category relationships to similarity ratings.

Two experiments produced evidence that category relationships contribute to similarity ratings. In Experiment 1, participants gave similarity ratings with respect to a semantic category (VEGETABLE) and a set of exemplars, some of which were members of the category (e.g., BROCCOLI) and some of which were not (e.g., BANANA). A regression analysis was used to predict the similarity ratings in terms of numbers of common and distinctive features, as reported by other participants. Perceived similarity was greater for examplars that were members of the category, independently of feature overlap. Experiment 2 examined similarity ratings with respect to pairs of exemplars. In some cases, both exemplars were members of the same category (e.g., BROCCOLI/CUCUMBER). In other cases, one exemplar was a member of the category and the other was not (e.g., BROCCOLI/BANANA). A regression analysis was used to predict the similarity ratings in terms of numbers of common and distinctive features. Perceived similarity was greater when both exemplars were members of the same category, independently of feature overlap.     

The effects of perceptual similarity and category membership on early word-referent identification

We investigated the impact of perceptual and categorical relatedness between a target and a distracter object on early referent identification in infants and adults. In an intermodal preferential looking (IPL) task, participants looked at a target object paired with a distracter object that could be perceptually similar or dissimilar and drawn from the same or different global category. The proportion of target looking measures revealed that infants and adults were sensitive to the interplay between category membership and perceptual similarity. Online latency measures demonstrated an advantage for perceptually dissimilar items regardless of their categorical status, indicating that different IPL measures index different processes during target identification. Results suggest that perceptual similarity and category membership of the objects lead to competition effects in word recognition and referent identification in both adults and infants and that lexical categorization and nonlinguistic categorization processes are closely related during infancy.     

Children's use of context and category cues to retrieve episodic information from memory

According to the encoding specificity hypothesis, a retrieval cue is effective to the extent that it is “compatible” with trace information in memory. The purpose of this study is to determine if the bases for establishing “compatibility” change with age. Adjective Noun-Noun (e.g., Bloody Axe-Sword) word triplets were presented at acquisition to second and fourth graders and college adults, and recall for the second noun (Sword) was tested at recall. The degree to which the retrieval cue information represented the acquisition encoding context was varied through the use of Adjective Noun, Noun, and Adjective context cues and cues representing the category name (e.g., weapon). In addition, the specificity of the acquisition encoding was manipulated. Either General (i.e., straight) or Distinctive (bloody) adjectives modified the nouns; encoding was constrained by relational or highly specific orienting questions, or was unconstrained (No Orient); and the questions were congruent or incongruent. The most striking results were that the second graders made effective use only of the Adjective Noun cues that most adequately represented the encoding context, and only in the most specified event situations (i.e., distinctive adjectives/specific congruent orienting questions).     

Cross-modal information integration in category learning

An influential theoretical perspective describes an implicit category-learning system that associates regions of perceptual space with response outputs by integrating information preattentionally and predecisionally across multiple stimulus dimensions. In this study, we tested whether this kind of implicit, information-integration category learning is possible across stimulus dimensions lying in different sensory modalities. Humans learned categories composed of conjoint visual–auditory category exemplars comprising a visual component (rectangles varying in the density of contained lit pixels) and an auditory component (in Exp. 1, auditory sequences varying in duration; in Exp. 2, pure tones varying in pitch). The categories had either a one-dimensional, rule-based solution or a two-dimensional, information-integration solution. Humans could solve the information-integration category tasks by integrating information across two stimulus modalities. The results demonstrated an important cross-modal form of sensory integration in the service of category learning, and they advance the field’s knowledge about the sensory organization of systems for categorization.     

Effects of accessibility and subjective relevance on the use of piecemeal and category information in impression formation

Three studies investigated the process by which categorical and individuating information impacts impression formation. The authors assumed that (a) both types of information are functionally equivalent in serving as evidence for interpersonal judgments and (b) their use is determined by their accessibility and perceived applicability to the impression's target. The first study constituted an extended replication of Pavelchak's experiment, and it showed that its results, initially interpreted to suggest the primacy in impression formation of category over trait information, may have been prompted by differential accessibility of the category versus trait information in some experimental conditions of the original research. Studies 2 and 3 additionally explored the role of informational accessibility manipulated in different ways. Study 3 demonstrated also that the effect of accessibility is qualified by the information's apparent relevance to the judgmental target.     

Category use and category learning

Categorization models based on laboratory research focus on a narrower range of explanatory constructs than appears necessary for explaining the structure of natural categories. This mismatch is caused by the reliance on classification as the basis of laboratory studies. Category representations are formed in the process of interacting with category members. Thus, laboratory studies must explore a range of category uses. The authors review the effects of a variety of category uses on category learning. First, there is an extensive discussion contrasting classification with a predictive inference task that is formally equivalent to classification but leads to a very different pattern of learning. Then, research on the effects of problem solving, communication, and combining inference and classification is reviewed.     

Parallel scanning of physical and category information

In Sternberg's memory scan paradigm, subjects were required to scan for category membership or physical identity. In Experiment I, the scan rate when checking for either type of relationship at the same time was less than the sum of the scan rates when checking for either relationship separately. In Experiment II, presenting memory sets consisting of items from a single category affected the category scan function but not the physical scan function. The results were interpreted as evidence for the capacity to conduct parallel scans of independent memory encodings when retrieving remembered information.     

The effects of category use on learned categories

Frequently, people learn to classify instances of a concept and later learn additional information about the concept. What is the effect of this later learning on the original classification? In five experiments, this issue was investigated with a common classification paradigm in which symptom sets were classified into disease categories. After learning to classify these sets, the subjects learned to use the category to decide what treatment should be given for a symptom set. The symptoms that were important for the treatments were later classified by disease more accurately and were generated earlier from the disease name. However, this effect occurred only if the category representation was activated during the learning of the treatments. Thus, later learning about a particular use of the concept can sometimes affect the original classification.     

Infants' object category formation and use: Real-world context effects on category use in object processing

Three experiments investigated category formation based on real-world encounters with objects and how that category knowledge functioned as a top-down influence on infants' scene processing. 5-month-old infants received various experiences with exemplars of an object category and then were shown a display containing 2 adjacent novel objects, 1 of which was a novel exemplar of the category. If infants recognized this novel exemplar, they could use category information to determine the boundary between the 2 objects. Only infants who experienced object exemplars in situations that closely mimicked everyday infant experiences with objects successfully parsed the display. Results suggest that regularities in the contexts where infants experience similar objects help infants link their experiences and form object categories that can be used to segregate novel scenes. These results shed light on the real-world process of infant knowledge base formation and on how infants use their knowledge base to segment real-world scenes.     

类别特征相似性与竞争性的线性变化对特征推理的影响

探讨在双类别情境中,新项目与类别成员的关系对特征推理的影响.共包括两个实验,被试是62名大一年级学生.实验1与实验2分别探讨在有无类别标签的情况下,诊断特征数量的增减对新项目预测特征推理的影响,即探讨类别特征相似性与竞争性的线性变化对特征推理的影响.结果表明:无论有无类别标签,诊断特征数量的增减对新项目预测特征的推理影响是相同的,即相似性与竞争性的线性变化对特征推理的影响是相同的.     

Reexamining the phonological similarity effect in immediate serial recall: The roles of type of similarity,category cuing,and item recall

Study of the phonological similarity effect (PSE) in immediate serial recall (ISR) has produced a conflicting body of results. Five experiments tested various theoretical ideas that together may help integrate these results. Experiments 1 and 2 tested alternative accounts that explain the effect of phonological similarity on item recall in terms of feature overlap, linguistic structure, or serial order. In each experiment, the participants' ISR was assessed for rhyming, alliterative, and similar nonrhyming/nonalliterative lists. The results were consistent with the predictions of the serial order account, with item recall being higher for rhyming than for alliterative lists and higher for alliterative than for similar nonrhyming/nonalliterative lists. Experiments 3 and 4 showed that these item recall differences are reduced when list items repeat across lists. Experiment 5 employed rhyming and dissimilar one-syllable and two-syllable lists to demonstrate that recall for similar (rhyming) lists can be better than that for dissimilar lists even in a typical ISR task in which words are used, providing a direct reversal of the classic PSE. These and other previously published results are interpreted and integrated within a proposed theoretical framework that offers an account of the PSE.     

Learning fine-grained and category information in navigable real-world space

Spatial judgments are affected by both fine-grained and categorical knowledge. We investigated whether, and how, the two forms of knowledge are learned in real-world, navigable space, as well as the time course of learning each type of knowledge. Participants were Northwestern University undergraduates who estimated the locations of buildings and other landmarks on campus. The Northwestern campus is roughly divided into three regions whose borders are not easy to discern, either from a map or by navigation. Nevertheless, students often refer to these regions linguistically and use them when making housing decisions, choosing classes, and so forth. We found that knowledge of both the fine-grained configuration of locations and the regional distinctions increased with time. However, regional influences on judgments occurred later in students’ time on campus. Consequently, computed distances across the nonexistent border between north and south campus locations became more biased with time. The results have implications for understanding how spatial representations develop in navigable environments.     

The effect of spatial frequency information and visual similarity in threat detection

In the current research, we sought to examine the role of spatial frequency on the detection of threat using a speeded visual search paradigm. Participants searched for threat-relevant (snakes or spiders) or non-threat-relevant (frogs or cockroaches) targets in an array of neutral (flowers or mushrooms) distracters, and we measured search performance with images filtered to contain different levels (high and low) of spatial frequency information. The results replicate previous work demonstrating more rapid detection of threatening versus non-threatening stimuli [e.g. LoBue, V. & DeLoache, J. S. (2008). Detecting the snake in the grass: Attention to fear-relevant stimuli by adults and young children. Psychological Science, 19, 284–289. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02081.x]. Most importantly, the results suggest that low spatial frequency or relatively coarse levels of visual information is sufficient for the rapid and accurate detection of threatening stimuli. Furthermore, the results also suggest that visual similarity between the stimuli used in the search tasks plays a significant role in speeded detection. The results are discussed in terms of the theoretical implications for the rapid detection of threat and methodological implications for properly accounting for similarity between the stimuli in visual search studies.     

The use of category and exemplar knowledge in the solution of anchoring tasks

Five studies examine the role that category and exemplar knowledge play in the mediation of anchoring effects--the assimilation of an absolute estimate to a previously considered standard. Studies 1 through 3 demonstrate that comparing the target object with a plausible anchor (i.e., a standard that constitutes a possible value for the target) leads to a selective increase in the accessibility of anchor-consistent exemplar knowledge about the target. This easily accessible knowledge is then used to generate the absolute estimate, which leads to its assimilation to the standard. Studies 4 and 5 demonstrate that comparing the target with an implausible anchor, however, involves the activation of knowledge about the general category of the target, rather than exemplar knowledge about the target itself.     

Response bias in category and magnitude estimation of difference and similarity for loudness and pitch

Interval scales of sensory magnitude were derived from magnitude and category estimates of loudness differences, loudness similarities, pitch differences, and pitch similarities. In each of the four loudness experiments, a loudness scale was constructed from a nonmetric analysis of the rank order of the judgments. The four loudness scales so constructed were found to be equivalent to one another and indicated that loudness was a power function of sound pressure with an exponent of .29. A similar analysis for the four pitch experiments found the pitch scales derived in each case to be equivalent to one another and linear with the mel scale of pitch. Thus the same sensory and similarities for two distinct perceptual continua. For both pitch and loudness, these sensory scales were used to generate scales of sensory differences. A comparison of the category and magnitude estimates of sensory differences with the scale of sensory differences derived from the nonmetric analyses indicated the presence of significant response biases in both category and magnitude estimation procedures.     

Learning names for materials: Factors constraining and limiting hypotheses about word meaning

Children's ability to learn new words quickly (Carey, 1978; Dickinson, 1984b; Heibeck & Markman, in press) indicates that they have strategies for constraining hypotheses about word meaning. The initial hypotheses children entertain about the meaning of words that name materials were examined in two studies. The first study examined the effects of linguistic constraint supplied by count/mass syntactic information and of conceptual constraints—Object Bias for Solids (i.e., words applied to solids name objects, not materials; Soja, Carey, & Spelke, 1985), and Substance Bias for Nonsolids (i.e., words applied to nonsolids name materials). A second study investigated the effects of providing more explicit information about word meaning by including the phrase “made of” when words were presented. In both studies, 16 children, aged 3, 4, and 5, were introduced to an object or material and told a name for it in phrases that varied the information provided. They then were shown two items and asked to indicate which was an example of the presentation stimulus. Mass syntax was somewhat effective in helping children map words to material concepts, but conceptual constraints were more important. Children of all ages were poor at learning names for materials when the word referred to unfamiliar objects made of unfamiliar materials, but the phrase “made of” helped reduce the effect of the Object Bias for Solids among 5-year-olds. Age-related developments suggest that acquisition of material names also is affected by improving access to material concepts.     

The role of category information in word identification: A parallel decision model

Four experiments consider the role of semantic category information in word identification using a serial classification reaction time paradigm. Experimental variables were manipulated by varying the semantic properties of blocks of trials and the target search instructions. Experiments 1, 2, and 3 investigated the facilitation on target word recognition of manipulating the categorical homogeneity of the nontarget words. An homogeneous nontarget set facilitated the classification of unrelated target words. This category contrast effect was obtained in all conditions, although its magnitude depended upon target search instructions. Experiment 3 also investigated whether word identification was inhibited if subjects were prevented from utilizing the category information to distinguish target from nontarget words. Target and nontarget word identification was slower under such conditions. Experiment 4 demonstratd that both the category contrast and category interference effects were dependent upon the use of short response-stimulus intervals to define a functional semantic background. This suggests the category effects are perceptual in nature. Current models of word recognition cannot easily explain the findings. A committee decision model is outlined to accommodate the data; the model proposes that visual analysis, identification, and categorization proceed in parallel.     

Word category and verb--argument structure information in the dynamics of parsing

One of the core issues in psycholinguistic research concerns the relationship between word category information and verb-argument structure (e.g. transitivity) information of verbs in the process of sentence parsing. In two experiments (visual versus auditory presentation) using event-related brain potentials (ERPs), we addressed this question by presenting sentences in which the critical word simultaneously realized both a word category and a transitivity violation. ERPs for sentences with both types of violation clustered with the patterns for sentences with a word category violation only, but were different from the patterns elicited by argument structure violations in isolation, since only the latter elicited an N400 ERP component. The finding that an argument structure violation evoked an N400 only if the phrase structure of the respective sentence was correct suggests that a successful integration of the word category information of a verb functionally precedes the application of its argument structure information.