Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Perception & Psychophysics

Publisher

Psychonomic Society

Publication Date

8-1-2006

First Page

1013

Last Page

1026

Issue Number

6

Volume Number

68

Abstract/ Summary

Three experiments investigate whether the amount of category overlap constrains the decision strategies used in category learning, and whether such constraints depend on the type of category structures used. Experiments 1 and 2 used a category learning task requiring perceptual integration of information from multiple dimensions (information-integration task) and Experiment 3 used a task requiring the application of an explicit strategy (rule-based task). In the information-integration task, participants used perceptual-integration strategies at moderate levels of category overlap, but explicit strategies at extreme levels of overlap – even when such strategies were sub-optimal. In contrast, in the rule-based task, participants used explicit strategies regardless of the level of category overlap. These data are consistent with a multiple systems view of category learning, and suggest that categorization strategy depends on the type of task that is used, and on the degree to which each stimulus is probabilistically associated with the contrasting categories.

Citation/Publisher Attribution

(c) Psychonomic Society, Inc. 2013. The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/ doi: 10.3758/BF03193362

DOI

10.3758/BF03193362

Version

post-print (i.e. final draft post-refereeing with all author corrections and edits)

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