Early impressions count: Category ratings established from small samples
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Updated: Oct 31, 2026

Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization
Published on: April 19, 2017
Chuchen Zhang1, Simon Kemp2,3, Randolph C Grace1
1Department of Psychology, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.
Abstract:
We examined the establishment of category ratings from small samples in three studies. A Monte Carlo experiment showed that basing categories on the first five or ten numbers encountered could provide a usable way to categorize numbers drawn from flat, normal and skewed distributions. Experiment 2 in which people categorized random integers presented one by one into five bins showed that after five or ten presentations the category structure was quite similar to that obtained after 30 presentations, and Experiment 3 found a similar result when people categorized arc segments. Overall, the results show that usable category ratings can be established from relatively small samples of observations.
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