Decision-tree models of categorization response times, choice proportions, and typicality judgments

The authors present 3 decision-tree models of categorization adapted from T. Trabasso, H. Rollins, and E. Shaughnessy (1971) and use them to provide a quantitative account of categorization response times, choice proportions, and typicality judgments at the individual-participant level. In Experiment 1, the decision-tree models were fit to reaction time and choice proportion data from a study reported by A. L. Cohen and R. M. Nosofsky (2003). In Experiment 2, participants were also asked to provide typicality ratings for each stimulus. A process-tracing method called the "4-questions game" (Y. Sayeki, 1969) was used in a posttest phase to identify a decision tree for each participant. In both experiments, the decision-tree models explained a very high proportion of variance in the data and compared favorably with 2 leading exemplar models.