PET evidence for multiple strategies of categorization.
It is widely held that people use multiple strategies to categorize their experiences in the world. We conducted a pair of neuroimaging experiments to identify the neural correlates of two of these strategies--rule application and exemplar similarity. Participants were instructed to perform either a rule- or an exemplar-based categorization task while changes in cerebral blood flow were measured using positron emission tomography. Patterns of neural activity were consistent with the predictions of cognitive models of rule-versus exemplar-based categorization and with existing neuroscience data. The identification of strategy-specific neural patterns offers future researchers a diagnostic tool for assessing strategy use in other situations.
Patalano
A L
AL
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. patalano@uiuc.edu
Smith
E E
EE
Jonides
J
J
Koeppe
R A
RA
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D011340:Problem Solving / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012039:Regional Blood Flow / Q000502:physiology; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed