Classification of exemplars with single- and multiple-feature manifestations: the effects of relevant dimension variation and category structure.
Most classification research focuses on cases in which each abstract feature has the same surface manifestation whenever it is presented. Previous research finds that people have difficulty learning to classify when each abstract feature has multiple surface manifestations. These studies created multiple manifestations by varying aspects of the stimuli irrelevant to the abstract feature dimension. In this article, multiple manifestations were created by varying aspects of the stimuli relevant to the abstract feature dimension. People given categories with the family resemblance category structure often used in psychology experiments had difficulty learning to classify when multiple manifestations were present, even though the variation was relevant. This effect was reversed when a family resemblance structure with nondiagnostic values was used.
Markman
Arthur B
AB
Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, 78712, USA.
Maddox
W Todd
WT
D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011897:Random Allocation