Prototypes and particulars: geometric and experience-dependent spatial categories.
People use geometric cues to form spatial categories. This study investigated whether people also use the spatial distribution of exemplars. Adults pointed to remembered locations on a tabletop. In Experiment 1, a target was placed in each geometric category, and the location of targets was varied. Adults' responses were biased away from a midline category boundary toward geometric prototypes located at the centers of left and right categories. Experiment 2 showed that prototype effects were not influenced by cross-category interactions. In Experiment 3, subsets of targets were positioned at different locations within each category. When prototype effects were removed, there was a bias toward the center of the exemplar distribution, suggesting that common categorization processes operate across spatial and object domains.
Spencer
John P
JP
Department of Psychology, University of Iowa, Iowa City 52242, USA. john-spencer@uiowa.edu
Hund
Alycia M
AM
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002965:Classification; D005793:Generalization, Psychological; D006801:Humans; D007484:Iowa; D008568:Memory; D008960:Models, Psychological; D013028:Space Perception