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Creating Objects and Object Categories for Studying Perception and Perceptual Learning
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Published on: November 2, 2012

Relational versus absolute representation in categorization.

Darren J Edwards1, Emmanuel M Pothos, Amotz Perlman

  • 1Department of Psychology, Swansea University, England. D.J.Edwards@swansea.ac.uk

The American Journal of Psychology
|January 29, 2013
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

This study reveals factors influencing categorization, showing that smaller groups, more training categories, and time delays promote relational-like classification over absolute-like representations.

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Human Perception and Cognition

Background:

  • Categorization research often examines relational (abstract) and absolute (instance-specific) properties.
  • Factors influencing the dominance of relational versus absolute representations in categorization are not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate factors that promote relational-like versus absolute-like categorization.
  • To identify conditions that shift categorization strategies.

Main Methods:

  • 370 participants completed 6 experiments involving classification of artificial categories.
  • Experimental manipulations included number of items per group, number of training groups, and time delays between learning and testing.

Main Results:

  • Relational-like categorization was predominant in 4 experiments.
  • Absolute-like categorization emerged in 2 experiments.
  • Fewer items per group, more training groups, and time delays favored relational-like categorization.

Conclusions:

  • Reduced distributional information or weaker memory traces for category exemplars encourage relational-like categorization.
  • Category size and time delays are key factors influencing categorization strategy.