Relational similarity and context effects in category verification.

Two experiments with a total of 50 undergraduate and graduate students measured the effects of coordinate falses, which pair 2 exemplars from a common category (e.g., "A dog is a cat"), on latencies to true items in a category verification task. Results show that although, relative to anomalous falses, coordinate falses did not increase latencies to trues, the size of the increase did not vary with the similarity of the coordinates. Furthermore, latencies were faster to coordinate falses that were more similar than to coordinate falses that were less similar. These results suggest relational similarity is as powerful a predictor of performance in category verification as is attribute similarity. Finally, there was some evidence that the increase in latencies was the same for typical and atypical category exemplars. It is concluded that this last finding, if substantiated, indicates that relational information is generally accessed prior to attribute information. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of background knowledge on category construction.

In category construction, participants are commonly asked to sort items into 2 groups. Although natural categories have a family resemblance (FamR) structure, participants rarely construct FamR categories in the sorting task. In previous research, participants constructed FamR categories when the features of the instances could be integrated into a coherent category, if the category theme was provided. In Experiments 1–4, participants constructed more FamR categories with thematic materials than with nonthematic materials, even without being cued with the theme. Experiments 5A and 5B showed that when instances contained conflicting features (i.e., features that are contradictory given background knowledge) participants were not more likely to construct FamR categories with the thematic materials, unless they had a way of discounting such features. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Retrieval selectivity in memory-based impression judgments.

Judgments about others are often based on memory for information about the persons being judged. Three studies with a total of 92 undergraduates are reported that used decision time to determine what information Ss selectively recall when they make memory-based person judgments. Each study employed a sequential judgment paradigm in which an S first made an impression judgment about a person on one dimension while stimulus information was continuously available. Immediately therafter, the S made a 2nd judgment about the same person on a different dimension without the stimulus information being available. It is concluded that Ss' memory-based judgments were based on memory for their 1st impression judgments combined with a selective memory search for negative stimulus information. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A memory-based account of retrospective revaluation.

We adapt an instance model of human memory, Minerva 2, to simulate retrospective revaluation. In the account, memory preserves the events of individual trials in separate traces. A probe presented to memory contacts all traces in parallel and causes each to become active. The information retrieved from memory is the sum of the activated traces. Learning is modelled as a process of cued-recall; encoding is modelled as a process of differential encoding of unexpected features in the probe (i.e., expectancy-encoding). The model captures three examples of retrospective revaluation: backward blocking, recovery from blocking, and backward conditioned inhibition. The work integrates an understanding of human memory and complex associative learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An analysis of memory-based theories of automaticity.

Memory-based theories of automaticity predict that performance in a memory search task which is automatic will not require a representation of the memory set in working memory. The information contained in working memory was manipulated by inserting an interference task between the presentation of a memory set and a probe stimulus in a memory search task. The interference task prevented rehearsal, necessitating the retrieval of the memory set from long-term memory in variably mapped (VM) conditions. Performance in consistently mapped (CM) conditions provided strong support for memory-based theories of automaticity. With CM practice, both the effects of memory load and the effect of the interference task were eliminated. Furthermore, there was a temporal coupling in the reduction of these two effects with consistent practice. Monte Carlo simulations of memory-based automaticity predict such a temporal coupling. Automaticity is viewed as a continuum reflecting the relative contribution of the direct memory access of past solutions from long-term memory on performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Inductive problem solving: Schema inducement and memory-based transfer.

Studies of delayed transfer have been infrequent in contemporary work (M. L. Gick and K. J. Holyoak, 1987). Studies of immediate transfer by G. D. Phye (1986, 1987; see also PA, Vol 77:3557) have identified a general schema and a procedural schema as the basis for the transfer of analogical reasoning skills. This study addresses the question of memory-based processing when transfer is delayed. Ss were 183 college students. The training-for-transfer paradigm used to study immediate transfer was employed. Results indicate the use of both a general and a specific schema for retrieval when memory-based processing is required in order to demonstrate transfer within a problem domain. These data replicate and extend Phye's previous findings identifying induced schemata as a part of the architectural basis for cognitive transfer. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On-line and memory-based aspects of individual and group target judgments.

Ss were given instruction sets to induce either on-line or memory-based processing while reading behavioral statements about individual and group targets. Impression-set instructions induced on-line judgments, and comprehensibility-set (comp) instructions induced memory-based judgments regardless of target type. More important, with nondirective instructions (memory set), natural differences in processing information about individuals and groups were observed, with more on-line judgments for individuals. As expected, illusory correlations between minority targets and infrequent behaviors (a memory-based product) emerged with comp instructions (which induced memory-based judgments for both target types) and in the memory-set condition for group targets only. These data provide insights into the differences in impression formation for groups and individuals and furnish direct evidence of the processes responsible for illusory correlations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depression and category learning.

Explores the relationship between depression and category learning. It was predicted that depression would impair categorization performance on criterial-attribute tasks, which require systematic hypothesis testing, but not on family-resemblance tasks, which allow processing strategies that are likely preserved in depression. These predictions were confirmed in 2 experiments using different stimuli tasks, and S populations. Implications of the empirical connections among depression, the use of less sophisticated cognitive strategies, and category learning are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ideals and category typicality.

Barsalou (1985) argued that exemplars that serve category goals become more typical category members. Although this claim has received support, we investigated (a) whether categories have a single ideal, as negatively valenced categories (e.g., cigarette) often have conflicting goals, and (b) whether ideal items are in fact typical, as they often have unusual attributes. Because past studies on ideals were largely correlational and often used categories not strongly associated to goals (e.g., tree, bird, fish), we took an experimental approach, using categories with obvious goals. Our results indicated that exemplars having goal-fulfilling characteristics are generally judged as less typical than exemplars with average features. Also, although subjects had a general consensus on the ideals of neutral and positive categories, they held opposing opinions on the ideals of the negatively valenced categories. We found that this bimodality in idealness perception was due to differing perspectives taken on the categories; however, perspectives that changed idealness of category exemplars did not influence their typicality. In short, ideal exemplars that best serve category goals are not necessarily perceived as typical. We contrast the goal-fulfilling aspect of ideals with the structural notion of extreme values (e.g., very tall trees), which may influence typicality through other mechanisms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of attitudes in memory-based decision making.

Frequently, considerable knowledge of the attributes of decision alternatives is available in memory so as to permit a thoughtful and deliberate choice. However, in many instances, individuals neglect to use such knowledge and instead rely on "attitude-based" strategy to make a memory-based decision. The findings from two experiments suggest that as the motivation to make a correct decision or the opportunity to use the available attribute knowledge decreases, the likelihood that attitudes will guide a memory-based decision increases. The findings illustrate the functional role attitudes play in guiding decisions and behavior. By providing a ready means of evaluating choice alternatives, attitudes enable an individual to make a decision relatively quickly and effortlessly. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relational interpretations.

We review studies of relational interpretations as predictors of psychotherapy outcome and alliance. Investigations examining frequency of interpretations and outcome have yielded mixed findings. However, studies specifically of transference interpretations have converged toward the conclusion that high rates of transference interpretations can lead to poor outcome, particularly for patients with low quality of object relations. Several studies of the quality of interpretations have yielded consistent findings suggesting that relatively more favorable treatment outcomes are produced when therapists accurately address central aspects of patients' interpersonal dynamics. Few studies that have examined the relation between interpretations and the therapeutic alliance or tested the common clinical notion that interpretations have their greatest impact in the context of a positive alliance. Practice implications based upon this research literature are proposed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Event category learning.

This research investigated the learning of event categories, in particular, categories of simple animated events, each involving a causal interaction between 2 characters. Four experiments examined whether correlations among attributes of events are easier to learn when they form part of a rich correlational structure than when they are independent of other correlations. Event attributes (e.g., state change, path of motion) were chosen to reflect distinctions made by verbs. Participants were presented with an unsupervised learning task and were then tested on whether the organization of correlations affected learning. Correlations forming part of a system of correlations were found to be better learned than isolated correlations. This finding of facilitation from correlational structure is explained in terms of a model that generates internal feedback to adjust the salience of attributes. These experiments also provide evidence regarding the role of object information in events, suggesting that this role is mediated by object category representations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relational being.

Reviews the book, Relational being: Beyond self and community by Kenneth J. Gergen (see record 2009-10534-000). In this book, Gergen develops and elaborates a theoretical framework for shifting the unit of analysis in psychology and other social sciences away from the individual toward relationships. The core arguments of the book revolve around claims that individuals (“bounded entities”) are social constructs that should be understood not as natural and self-evident phenomena but rather as emergent from relationships. By corollary, many of the properties traditionally associated with individuals (e.g., thoughts, feelings, beliefs) are argued to be better understood as relational accomplishments; that is, as arising from the larger context of the social fabric from which individuals are seen to be emergent. Significantly, Gergen also asserts that traditional individualist assumptions have negative impacts on our social world. He focuses on a number of specific domains to illustrate how a relational approach would lead to a more constructive, harmonious, and better existence. I found much value in the practical aspects of Gergen’s exposition of relational being, while feeling uncomfortable with the epistemological and ontological foundations provided in the book. The root of this ambiguity seems to lie in Gergen’s own contradictory stance, which oscillates between offering a relational approach as “just another perspective” (i.e., no more or less true than any other) and implying the moral and epistemic superiority of relational over individualist approaches. Although the former position seems to me sensible and appropriate, the latter (which dominates in the book) constitutes an unnecessary universalism that seems to run counter to the pluralistic spirit that is evident in parts of the book. Gergen’s own words, Let us replace the Hobbesian dystopia of 'all against all,' with a vision of 'all with all' (p. 403) for me sums up both the strengths and weaknesses of the book—the insights offered by the application of a relational perspective to specific practical contexts are a truly valuable contribution; but suggesting that this perspective is a panacea and needs to replace all individualistic accounts is counterproductive. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conservation level and category clustering.

Conducted 2 experiments with 180 elementary and junior high school students to test the hypothesis that category recall is related to the quantity conservation of mass, weight, and volume. The predicted association between conservation level and category recall was observed. In Exp I conservation level was varied with word lists. Main effects of both these variables on recall and category clustering scores appeared. Systematic developmental trends in clustering for the high- but not for the low-associative word list were revealed in post hoc analyses. In Exp II, the Ss' organizational bases were studied under a procedure in which the Ss were allowed first to study a stimulus word and then to select a syntagmatic, a paradigmatic, a category inclusive, or an unrelated response word as a mediator to help them remember the stimulus word. Analyses performed on response selections and response selections in relation to recall revealed that Ss who conserved volume showed the highest tendency to select category inclusive responses. It is suggested that more mature Ss are more likely both to select and use superordinate information as an encoding device. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Category use and category learning.

Categorization models based on laboratory research focus on a narrower range of explanatory constructs than appears necessary for explaining the structure of natural categories. This mismatch is caused by the reliance on classification as the basis of laboratory studies. Category representations are formed in the process of interacting with category members. Thus, laboratory studies must explore a range of category uses. The authors review the effects of a variety of category uses on category learning. First, there is an extensive discussion contrasting classification with a predictive inference task that is formally equivalent to classification but leads to a very different pattern of learning. Then, research on the effects of problem solving, communication, and combining inference and classification is reviewed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prototypes in category learning: The effects of category size, category structure, and stimulus complexity.

Although research in categorization has sometimes been motivated by prototype theory, recent studies have favored exemplar theory. However, some of these studies focused on small, poorly differentiated categories composed of simple, 4-dimensional stimuli. Some analyzed the aggregate data of entire groups. Some compared powerful multiplicative exemplar models to less powerful additive prototype models. Here, comparable prototype and exemplar models were fit to individual-participant data in 4 experiments that sampled category sets varying in size, level of category structure, and stimulus complexity (dimensionality). The prototype model always fit the observed data better than the exemplar model did. Prototype-based processes seemed especially relevant when participants learned categories that were larger or contained more complex stimuli. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Unitization during category learning.

Five experiments explored the question of whether new perceptual units can be developed if they are useful for a category learning task, and if so, what the constraints on this unitization process are. During category learning, participants were required to attend either a single component or a conjunction of 5 components. Consistent with unitization, the conjunctive task became much easier with practice; this improvement was not found for the single-component task or for conjunctive tasks in which the components could not be unitized. Influences of component organization (Experiment 1), component contiguity (Experiment 2), component proximity (Experiment 3), and number of components (Experiment 4) on practice effects were found. Deconvolved response times (Experiment 5) showed that prolonged practice yielded faster responses than predicted by an analytic model that integrates evidence from independently perceived components. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Blocking in category learning.

Many theories of category learning assume that learning is driven by a need to minimize classification error. When there is no classification error, therefore, learning of individual features should be negligible. The authors tested this hypothesis by conducting three category-learning experiments adapted from an associative learning blocking paradigm. Contrary to an error-driven account of learning, participants learned a wide range of information when they learned about categories, and blocking effects were difficult to obtain. Conversely, when participants learned to predict an outcome in a task with the same formal structure and materials, blocking effects were robust and followed the predictions of error-driven learning. The authors discuss their findings in relation to models of category learning and the usefulness of category knowledge in the environment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of captivity and memory-based experiences on the hippocampus in mountain chickadees.

The complexity of an animal's physical environment is known to affect the hippocampus. Captivity may affect hippocampal anatomy and this may be attributable to the limited opportunities for memory-based experiences. This has tangential support, in that differential demands on memory can mediate changes in the hippocampus. What remains unclear is whether captivity directly affects hippocampal architecture and whether providing memory-based experiences in captivity can maintain hippocampal attributes comparable to wild-caught conspecifics. Using food-caching mountain chickadees (Poecile gambeli), we found that wild-caught individuals had larger hippocampal volumes relative to the rest of the telencephalon than captive birds with or without memory-based food-caching experiences, whereas there were no differences in neuron numbers or telencephalon volume. Also, there were no significant differences in relative hippocampal volume or neuron numbers between the captive birds with or without memory-based experiences. Our results demonstrate that captivity reduces hippocampal volume relative to the remainder of the telencephalon, but not at the expense of neuron numbers. Further, memory-based experiences in captivity may not be sufficient to maintain hippocampal volume comparable to wild-caught counterparts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A reexamination of the roles of typicality and category dominance in verifying category membership.

Performed 4 partial replications of J. I. Chumbley's (1986) speeded category verification experiments in order to test the generality of his finding that category dominance, but not typicality, uniquely accounted for highly significant amounts of category verification reaction time (RT) for both exemplar–category (E–C) and category–exemplar (C–E) orders. The multiple regression results for yes responses revealed that, contrary to Chumbley's findings, typicality produced significant effects in the 12 conditions used over the 4 experiments, whether C–E or E–C conditions. However, category dominance produced significant effects only in conditions using an E–C order, consistent with E. F. Loftus (1973). Familiarity was the strongest unique predictor of RT for no responses. These findings, in combination with Chumbley's, demonstrated that typicality is a likely, but not certain, unique predictor of category verification RT, and that the category verification task is extremely sensitive to a large number of task parameters. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)