Abstract

As a hybrid view rule and similarity between exemplars both have an influence on categorization has been prevalent, studies to find out factors deciding on categorization strategies have been increasing. This study planned to investigate whether attention to attributes decide on categorization strategies. In Experiment 1, attention to attributes was manipulated by presenting stimulus as a whole(high cohesiveness condition) or as attributes separated(low cohesiveness condition). Results showed that linear separable categories were learned more rapidly than linear nonseparable categories in low cohesiveness condition but the reverse was true in high cohesiveness condition. In Experiment 2, subject's attention to attributes was manipulated by two instruction conditions. We found that error rates of negative transfer condition and differences between two cohesiveness conditions were greater in the rule instruction condition than in the simple categorization instruction condition. These results implies that factors having an influence on attention to attributes decide on categorization strategies.