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Updated: Aug 17, 2026

Creating Objects and Object Categories for Studying Perception and Perceptual Learning
Published on: November 2, 2012
Culture, category salience, and inductive reasoning
I Choi1, R E Nisbett, E E Smith
1University of Michigan, Department of Psychology, Ann Arbor 48109, USA. incheol@umich.edu
Abstract:
The role of category salience in category-based induction was demonstrated in two ways: (i) temporarily increasing category salience facilitated category-based induction, and (ii) this effect was moderated by cultural differences that we predicted would be related to chronic category salience. Subjects for whom categories were presumed to be more accessible (Americans) were not as much influenced by manipulations to increase category salience as subjects who were presumed to have lower chronic accessibility of categories (Koreans). However, as anticipated, this pattern was reversed for inferences about behavioral properties of social categories. Due to the 'interdependent' nature of their culture, Koreans presumably have relatively higher chronic accessibility for social categories than do relatively 'independent' Americans, and hence were not influenced as much by increasing category salience.
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