1,721,031 research outputs found
Domain differences in the structure of artifactual and natural categories.
No full textIn three experiments, different methodologies, measures, and items were employed to address the question of whether, and to what extent, membership in a semantic category is all or none (i.e., absolute) or a matter of degree (i.e., graded).Resemblance theory claims that categorization is based on similarity, and because similarity is graded, category membership may also be graded.Psychological essentialismasserts that categorization is based on the presumption of thecategory essence. Because artifactual (e.g., FURNITURE) and natural (e.g., FRUIT) categories have different sorts of essences, artifacts and natural kinds may be categorized in qualitatively different manners. The results converged on the finding of a robust domain difference in category structure: Artifactual categories were more graded than natural categories. Furthermore, typicality reliably predicted absolute category membership, but failed to predict graded category membership. These results suggest that resemblance theory and psychological essentialism may provide a concerted account of representation and categorization across domains
Attributive and relational processes in nominal combination.
No full textThe dual process theory of nominal (noun–noun) combination posits a relational process, in which a relation between concepts is inferred, as well as an attributive process, in which a property of one concept is attributed to another. According to dual process theory, these attributive and relational processes occur in parallel. A relational theory claims instead that attributive and relational comprehension result from the same process, and assumes that relational comprehension will occur serially prior to attributive comprehension. Experiment 1 used a priming paradigm to test whether the relational and attributive processes occur serially or in parallel. Target combinations were more likely to be comprehended, and were comprehended more quickly, when preceded by a prime combination that used the same attribution or relation than when preceded by a prime combination that did not engage the same attributive or relational process. Critically, the patterns of facilitation and interference were virtually identical across the attributive and relational target-types, suggesting that the processes occur in parallel. Experiment 2 showed that particular attributes and relations were primed, rather than the attributive or the relational process more generally. Results of both experiments supported the dual process theory. The emergence of a general model of nominal combination is discussed
A tale of two similarities: Comparison and integration in conceptual combination.
No full textThe perception of semantic similarity derives from distinct processes of comparison and integration. A dual process model of conceptual combination claims that attributive combination (e.g., umbrella tree) entails comparison, while relational combination (e.g., pancake spatula) requires integration. The present research uses similarity as a test of this dual process model. Participants (N=168) were presented attributive and relational conceptual combinations. Half of the participants interpreted the combinations before rating the similarity of their constituent concepts, while the other half provided similarity ratings without interpreting the concepts together. The experiment revealed that attributive combination decreased the perceived similarity of the constituent concepts, whereas relational combination increased the similarity of the constituents. This result indicates that attributive and relational combination occur via distinct processes. Results of a post-test (N=60) suggested that these effects were specific to the particular concepts compared or integrated, and do not generalize to other concepts not compared or integrated. The present research thus supported a dual process model of conceptual combination by demonstrating differential effects of comparison and integration on the perception of semantic similarity
Confidence and gradedness in semantic categorization: Definitely somewhat artifactual, maybe absolutely natural.
No full textArtifacts tend to be categorized in a graded (i.e., continuous) manner, whereas natural categorization tends to be absolute (i.e., discrete). This domain-specific categorization is assumed to reflect a domain difference in representation. However, another tenable but untested explanation is that graded categorization arises from uncertainty, which is greater in artifact categories than in natural categories. Confidence ratings were used as an index of certainty in two experiments that tested whether confidence in category judgments can explain the apparent gradedness of those categories. Both experiments revealed that artifact categories were more graded and were judged with greater confidence than were natural categories. Confidence and gradedness were negatively correlated within both domains. Thus, confidence did indeed predict gradednesswithin the artifact and natural domains but failed to predict the difference in gradednessbetween those domains. There is more to gradedness than just uncertainty
Loyalty program structure and consumers’ perceptions of status: Feeling special in a grocery store?
No full textLoyalty programs are business practices increasingly pursued by companies in order to achieve customer loyalty. Recent studies have focused on the relationship between loyalty program structures (i.e., number and size of hierarchical tiers) and status levels (i.e., exclusivity) perceived by members. The current study examines two potential moderators of this relationship between program structure and perceived status. Specifically, the aim of our research was to test whether loyalty program structure affects status perceptions in more and less exclusive industries, and among consumers with more and less positive attitudes toward loyalty programs.
An experimental design based on different scenarios was used. Two industries and three loyalty program structures were examined. In the airline industry, which is higher in perceived exclusivity, perceived status in the top tier of the loyalty program increased as the number of customers in the top tier decreased and as the number of tiers increased. Notably, however, this effect of loyalty program structure had no effect on perceived status in the supermarket industry, which is lower in perceived exclusivity. Moreover, even in the airline industry, status effects were only observed among respondents with a positive attitude toward loyalty programs. Those with neutral or negative attitudes toward loyalty programs were unaffected by the structure of the loyalty program. Thus, the effect of loyalty program structure on consumers’ perceived status varied systematically across industries and across individuals
The importance of being nonalignable: A critical test of the structural alignment theory of similarity.
No full textThe structural alignment theory of similarity distinguishes 2 types of difference that may occur between stimuli: Alignable differences are those related to a commonality, whereas nonalignable differences are not related to a commonality. Alignment theory predicts that alignable differences should be more heavily weighted than nonalignable differences in similarity judgment. Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrate that, contrary to this prediction, nonalignable differences exerted a greater impact than alignable differences in similarity and difference judgments of geometric stimuli. Experiment 3 revealed that the relative weight accorded a given difference was also affected by contextual constraints. Thus, although the experiments supported the validity of the distinction between alignable and nonalignable differences, results were discordant with the specific prediction of structural alignment theory
Confidence mediates the sex difference in mental rotation performance.
No full textOn tasks that require the mental rotation of 3-dimensional figures, males typically exhibit higher accuracy than females. Using the most common measure of mental rotation (i.e., the Mental Rotations Test), we investigated whether individual variability in confidence mediates this sex difference in mental rotation performance. In each of four experiments, the sex difference was reliably elicited and eliminated by controlling or manipulating participants’ confidence. Specifically, confidence predicted performance within and between sexes (Experiment 1), rendering confidence irrelevant to the task reliably eliminated the sex difference in performance (Experiments 2 and 3), and manipulating confidence significantly affected performance (Experiment 4). Thus, confidence mediates the sex difference in mental rotation performance and hence the sex difference appears to be a difference of performance rather than ability. Results are discussed in relation to other potential mediators and mechanisms, such as gender roles, sex stereotypes, spatial experience, rotation strategies, working memory, and spatial attention
Feature accessibility in conceptual combination: Effects of context-induced relevance.
No full textIn conceptual combinations such aspeeled apples, two kinds of features are potentially accessible: phrase features and noun features. Phrase features are true only of the phrase (e.g., “white”), whereas noun features are true of both the phrase and the head noun (e.g., “round”). When people comprehend such combinations, phrase features are verified more quickly and more accurately than noun features. We examine relevance as an explanation for this phrase feature superiority. If relevance is the critical factor, then contexts that explicitly make noun features relevant and phrase features irrelevant should reverse the phrase feature superiority (i.e., they should make noun features easier to verify than phrase features). Consistent with the relevance hypothesis, brief contexts that made noun features relevant also made those noun features more accessible than phrase features, and vice versa. We conclude that the phrase feature superiority effect is attributable to the discourse strategy of assigning relevance to modifiers in combinations, unless a context indicates otherwise
Freeze or flee? Negative stimuli elicit selective responding.
No full textHumans preferentially attend to negative stimuli. A consequence of this automatic vigilance for negative valence is that negative words elicit slower responses than neutral or positive words on a host of cognitive tasks. Some researchers have speculated that negative stimuli elicit a general suppression of motor activity, akin to the freezing response exhibited by animals under threat. Alternatively, we suggest that negative stimuli only elicit slowed responding on tasks for which stimulus valence is irrelevant for responding. To discriminate between these motor suppression and response-relevance hypotheses, we elicited both lexical decisions and valence judgments of negative words and positive words. Relative to positive words (e.g., kitten), negative words (e.g., spider) elicited slower lexical decisions but faster valence judgments. Results therefore indicate that negative stimuli do not cause a generalized motor suppression. Rather, negative stimuli elicit selective responding, with faster responses on tasks for which stimulus valence is response-relevant
Roosters, robins, and alarm clocks: Aptness and conventionality in metaphor comprehension
No full textBowdle and Gentner (2005) proposed a reconciliation of the comparison and categorization models of metaphor comprehension. Their career of metaphor model posits that, as a metaphorical term becomes more conventional, its mode of processing shifts from comparison to categorization. However, other recent studies ( [12] and [29]) suggest instead that aptness may mediate metaphorical processing. We empirically contrasted conventionality and aptness to examine their roles in metaphor comprehension. Aptness predicted the preference for metaphors over similes (Experiment 1), the speed and ease of metaphor comprehension (Experiment 2), and the category membership of metaphorical terms (Experiment 3). Conventionality did not reliably predict any of these aspects of metaphorical processing. Thus, results supported the categorization model, and failed to support the career of metaphor
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