Effects of category overlap and size on categorization judgements

Lee, Tae-Yeon; 이태연

Abstract

This study was planned to investigate representational aspects of categorical information by analyzing time courses of categorization. In experiment 1, category size and overlap were manipulated to test whether subject acquires summary information through category learning. It was found that categorization judgements of stimulus similar to prototype were more accurate than those similar to learned exemplars as category size increased. And it took more time to categorize stimulus similar to learned exemplars in small category size condition as category overlap increased. But category overlap didn't affect categorization time in large category size condition. In experiment 2, priming effects of prototypes or learned exemplars on categorization of novel stimulus were analyzed to find out differences of categorical informations accessed. As a result, in prototype priming condition, priming effects of stimulus similar to prototypes were larger than those similar to learned exemplars in large category size condition. But, in exemplar priming condition, the reverse was true in small category size condition. In conclusion, these results implicate that subject categorizes instances by retrieving similar learned exemplars from his memory in small category size condition, but by similarities between prototype and them in large category size condition.

keywords

바로가기메뉴

Article Contents

Vol.6 No.1

Effects of category overlap and size on categorization judgements

Abstract

The Korean Journal of Cognitive and Biological Psychology