A formal ideal-based account of typicality

Inspired by Barsalou’s (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 11, 629–654, 1985) proposal that categories can be represented by ideals, we develop and test a computational model, the ideal dimension model (IDM). The IDM is tested in its account of the typicality gradient for 11 superordinate natural language concepts and, using Bayesian model evaluation, contrasted with a standard exemplar model and a central prototype model. The IDM is found to capture typicality better than do the exemplar model and the central tendency prototype model, in terms of both goodness of fit and generalizability. The present findings challenge the dominant view that exemplar representations are most successful and present compelling evidence that superordinate natural language categories can be represented using an abstract summary, in the form of ideal representations. Supplemental appendices for this article can be downloaded from .     

Exemplars and prototypes in natural language concepts: A typicality-based evaluation

Are natural language categories represented by instances of the category or by a summary representation? We used an exemplar model and a prototype model, both derived within the framework of the generalized context model (Nosofsky, 1984, 1986), to predict typicality ratings for 12 superordinate natural language concepts. The models were fitted to typicality ratings averaged across participants and to the typicality judgments of individual participants. Both analyses yielded results in favor of the exemplar model. These results suggest that higher-level natural language concepts are represented by their subordinate members, rather than by a summary representation.     

Red-hot: How colour and semantic temperature processing interact in a Stroop-like paradigm

Temperature concepts and colour are commonly associated (i.e., red is “hot” and blue is “cold”), although their direction of influence (unidirectional, bidirectional) is unknown. Semantic Stroop effects, whereby words like fire influence colour categorization, suggest automatic semantic processing influences colour processing. The experiential framework of language comprehension indicates abstract concepts like temperature words simulate concrete experiences in their representation, where expressions like “red-hot” suggest colour processing influences conceptual processing. Participants categorized both colour (Experiment 1: red, blue; Experiment 2: red, green, blue) and word-meaning with matched lists of hot and cold meaning words in each colour. In Experiments 1 and 2, semantic categorization showed congruency effects across hot and cold words, while colour categorization showed facilitation only with hot words in Experiment 2. This asymmetry reflects a more consistent influence of colour categorization on semantic categorization than the reverse, suggesting experiential grounding effects may be more robust than the effects of semantic processing on colour processing.     

Isolated and interrelated concepts

A continuum between purely isolated and purely interrelated concepts is described. Along this continuum, a concept is interrelated to the extent that it is influenced by other concepts. Methods for manipulating and identifying a concept’s degree of interrelatedness are introduced. Relatively isolated concepts can be empirically identified by a relatively large use of nondiagnostic features, and by better categorization performance for a concept’s prototype than for a caricature of the concept. Relatively interrelated concepts can be identified by minimal use of nondiagnostic features, and by better categorization performance for a caricature than for a prototype. A concept is likely to be relatively isolated when subjects are instructed to create images for their concepts rather than find discriminating features, when concepts are given unrelated labels, and when the categories that are displayed alternate rarely between trials. The entire set of manipulations and measurements supports a graded distinction between isolated and interrelated concepts. The distinction is applied to current models of category learning, and a connectionist framework for interpreting the empirical results is presented.     

The Gendered Nature of Competence: Specific and General Aspects of Self‐Knowledge in Social Contexts1

A sense of academic competence combines at least 2 forms of gender stereotyping: an illusory glow about performance on specific tasks. and traditional gender stereotyping about general perceptions of natural talent. Flexible categorization in terms of generality and content suggests a multifaceted model of aspects of self‐knowledge about Mathematics and English (ASK‐ME). This paper demonstrates the flexibility of the ASK‐ME model for adolescents (N= 1,360) in 2 social contexts (coed and single‐gender schools). The forms of gender stereotyping combine so that where traditional gender stereotyping was reduced at single‐gender schools, an illusory glow had more influence. One outcome was that boys in single‐gender settings expressed enhanced perceptions of performance in mathematics and language. Results highlight the importance of generality and content in understanding the gendered nature of academic self‐concepts in social contexts. Implications are for differential influences on the plans and choices adolescents make about work and study.     

Conceptual interrelatedness and caricatures

Concepts are interrelated to the extent that the characterization of each concept is influenced by the other concepts, and are isolated to the extent that the characterization of one concept is independent of other concepts. The relative categorization accuracy of the prototype and caricature of a concept can be used as a measure of concept interrelatedness. The prototype is the central tendency of a concept, whereas a caricature deviates from the concept's central tendency in the direction opposite the central tendency of other acquired concepts. The prototype is predicted to be relatively well categorized when a concept is relatively independent of other concepts, but the caricature is predicted to be relatively well categorized when a concept is highly related to other concepts. Support for these predictions comes from manipulations of the labels given to simultaneously acquired concepts (Experiment 1) and of the order of categories during learning (Experiment 2).     

Explaining Gender‐Based Language Use: Effects of Gender Identity Salience on References to Emotion and Tentative Language in Intra‐ and Intergroup Contexts

An experiment tested hypotheses derived from self‐categorization theory’s explanation for gender‐based language use. Under high or low conditions of gender salience, men and women sent e‐mail to an ostensible male or female recipient yielding either an intra‐ or an intergroup setting. Gender salience was manipulated so that the stereotypically feminine characteristic of supportiveness was the sole attribute that defined the prototype of intergender relations. Messages were examined for references to emotion and tentative language. Women referenced emotion significantly more than men in the high gender salience condition, but this gender difference was reduced when salience was low. Moreover, women with high gender salience in an intergroup context referenced emotion more than women with high salience in an intragroup setting or men with high salience in either an intra‐ or an intergroup context. Tentative language use, however, was similar across all conditions as anticipated.     

Second‐Generation Leader Categorization Research: How Subordinates' Self‐ and Typical Leader Perceptions Moderate Leader Categorization Effects

Leader categorization theory proposes that the more leaders match their subordinates' cognitive image (prototype) of an ideal leader the easier it is for subordinates to “categorize” them as leaders and consequently follow their leadership. Based on self‐concept research, we extend this perspective and argue that the relationship assumed in leader categorization theory should be stronger when subordinates perceive themselves to represent the ideal leader prototype. Further, this moderating effect should be stronger when subordinates perceive the ideal leader prototype to not only be an abstract ideal category, but one that is generally also met in reality; i.e., when it is met by typical leaders. Findings of a cross‐sectional study with employees in Germany (N = 297) support both predictions.     

Semantic categorization in the human brain: spatiotemporal dynamics revealed by magnetoencephalography

We examined the cortical representation of semantic categorization using magnetic source imaging in a task that revealed both dissociations among superordinate categories and associations among different base-level concepts within these categories. Around 200 ms after stimulus onset, the spatiotemporal correlation of brain activity elicited by base-level concepts was greater within than across superordinate categories in the right temporal lobe. Unsupervised clustering of data showed similar categorization between 210 and 450 ms mainly in the left hemisphere. This pattern suggests that well-defined semantic categories are represented in spatially distinct, macroscopically separable neural networks, independent of physical stimulus properties. In contrast, a broader, task-required categorization (natural/man-made) was not evident in our data. The perceptual dynamics of the categorization process is initially evident in the extrastriate areas of the right hemisphere; this activation is followed by higher-level activity along the ventral processing stream, implicating primarily the left temporal lobe.     

Environment and Goals Jointly Direct Category Acquisition

Abstract— Developing categorization schemes involves discovering structures in the world that support a learner's goals. Existing models of category learning, such as exemplar and prototype models, neglect the role of goals in shaping conceptual organization. Here, a clustering approach is discussed that reflects the joint influences of the environment and goals in directing category acquisition. Clusters are a flexible representational medium that exhibits properties of exemplar, prototype, and rule-based models. Clusters reflect the natural bundles of correlated features present in our environment. The clustering model Supervised and Unsupervised Stratified Incremental Adaptive Network (SUSTAIN) operates by assuming the world has a simple structure and adding complexity (i.e., clusters) when existing clusters fail to satisfy the learner's goals and thus elicit surprise. Although simple, this operation is sufficient to address findings from numerous laboratory and cross-cultural categorization studies.     

Ordinary language semantics: the contribution of Brentano and Marty

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the account of ordinary language semantics developed by Franz Brentano and his pupil Anton Marty. Long before the interest in ordinary language in the analytic tradition, Brentanian philosophers were exploring our everyday use of words, as opposed to the scientific use of language. Brentano and Marty were especially interested in the semantics of (common) names in ordinary language. They claimed that these names are vague, and that this is due to the structure of the concepts that constitute their meaning: concepts expressed by such names are themselves vague, based on typicality, and have more or less similar items within their extension. After presenting the views of Brentano and Marty, this paper compares them to later accounts of meaning and concepts, notably Wittgenstein’s theory of family resemblances and the prototype theory of concepts, and emphasizes the originality of the Brentanian position.     

Journey to the center of the category: the dissociation in amnesia between categorization and recognition

The authors' theoretical analysis of the dissociation in amnesia between categorization and recognition suggests these conclusions: (a) Comparing to-be-categorized items to a category center or prototype produces strong prototype advantages and steep typicality gradients, whereas comparing to-be-categorized items to the training exemplars that surround the prototype produces weak prototype advantages and flat typicality gradients; (b) participants often show the former pattern, suggesting their use of prototypes; (c) exemplar models account poorly for these categorization data, but prototype models account well for them; and (d) the recognition data suggest that controls use a single-comparison exemplar-memorization process more powerfully than amnesics. By pairing categorization based in prototypes with recognition based in exemplar memorization, the authors support and extend other recent accounts of cognitive performance that intermix prototypes and exemplars, and the authors reinforce traditional interpretations of the categorization-recognition dissociation in amnesia.     

The curious case of the refrigerator-TV: similarity and hybridization

This article examines the role of similarity in the hybridization of concepts, focusing on hybrid products as an applied test case. Hybrid concepts found in natural language, such as singer songwriter, typically combine similar concepts, whereas dissimilar concepts rarely form hybrids. The hybridization of dissimilar concepts in products such as jogging shoe mp3 player and refrigerator TV thus poses a challenge for understanding the process of conceptual combination. It is proposed that models of conceptual combination can throw light on the judged future success and desirability of hybrid products in general. The composite prototype model proposes two stages of conceptual combination. In the first stage, the concepts are aggregated into an additive hybrid, simply by forming the union of the two sets of attributes. In the second stage, any conflicting attributes are identified and resolved, often with the introduction of emergent attributes, resulting in an integrative hybrid. Across four studies that varied the similarity and type of hybrid products, similar and integrative hybrids were valued more than dissimilar and additive hybrids. Critically, though, dissimilar hybrids were also highly valued if they were integrative. Results supported the two stages proposed by the composite prototype model, and implications for other models of hybrid formation are discussed.     

A probabilistic threshold model: Analyzing semantic categorization data with the Rasch model

According to the Threshold Theory (Hampton, 1995, 2007) semantic categorization decisions come about through the placement of a threshold criterion along a dimension that represents items' similarity to the category representation. The adequacy of this theory is assessed by applying a formalization of the theory, known as the Rasch model (Rasch, 1960; Thissen & Steinberg, 1986), to categorization data for eight natural language categories and subjecting it to a formal test. In validating the model special care is given to its ability to account for inter- and intra-individual differences in categorization and their relationship with item typicality. Extensions of the Rasch model that can be used to uncover the nature of category representations and the sources of categorization differences are discussed.     

The career of metaphor

A central question in metaphor research is how metaphors establish mappings between concepts from different domains. The authors propose an evolutionary path based on structure-mapping theory. This hypothesis--the career of metaphor--postulates a shift in mode of mapping from comparison to categorization as metaphors are conventionalized. Moreover, as demonstrated by 3 experiments, this processing shift is reflected in the very language that people use to make figurative assertions. The career of metaphor hypothesis offers a unified theoretical framework that can resolve the debate between comparison and categorization models of metaphor. This account further suggests that whether metaphors are processed directly or indirectly, and whether they operate at the level of individual concepts or entire conceptual domains, will depend both on their degree of conventionality and on their linguistic form.     

The cognitive structure of social categories

Support for the prototype theory of categorization was found in a study of the structure of social categories. Though occupational terms such as DOCTOR are socially defined, they do not have the classical structure their clear definitional origins would predict. Conceptions of social categories are richer and more complex than those of physical object categories and subjects agree upon them. Comparison of various instructions for eliciting attributes of categories showed that whether subjects are asked to define a term, give characteristics, or describe ways they recognize members of categories, the attributes they list contribute to a prototype structure. These data provide evidence against the view that prototype structure is relevant only to an identification procedure and not to the core of concepts, as has been suggested.     

Prototypes and personal templates: collective wisdom and individual differences

This article concerns individual differences in the associative meaning of psychological concepts. Associative meaning may be assessed with prototype methodology, which yields a list of features of the concept ordered according to their rated importance. Our theory concerns individual differences in a concept's associative meaning: A personal template reveals a person's idiosyncratic associative meaning. It is possible to assess the degree to which a personal template matches the corresponding prototype. The theory distinguishes among three types of concepts. One type, for example, specifies a particular behavior to be predicted, for example, a person who is likely to commit suicide, and features of the prototype would include predictors of suicidal behavior. According to the theory, the most prototypical features are (under specifiable conditions) valid predictors, and people with a strong template-to-prototype match possess more valid knowledge about the concept than do people with a weak template-to-prototype match. Other types of concepts cannot be validated (e.g., those describing subjective experiences). In that case, a strong template-to-prototype match does not reflect a person's degree of valid knowledge. The authors provide three applications of the theory.     

Episodic and prototype models of category learning

The question of what processes are involved in the acquisition and representation of categories remains unresolved despite several decades of research. Studies using the well-known prototype distortion task (Posner and Keele in J Exp Psychol 77:353–363, 1968) delineate three candidate models. According to exemplar-based models, we memorize each instance of a category and when asked to decide whether novel items are category members or not, the decision is explicitly based on a similarity comparison with each stored instance. By contrast, prototype models assume that categorization is based on the similarity of the target item to an implicit abstraction of the central tendency or average of previously encountered instances. A third model suggests that the categorization of prototype distortions does not depend on pre-exposure to study exemplars at all and instead reflects properties of the stimuli that are easily learned during the test. The four experiments reported here found evidence that categorization in this task is predicated on the first and third of these models, namely transfer at test and the exemplar-based model. But we found no evidence for the second candidate model that assumed that categorization is based on implicit prototype abstraction.