Effects of experience and task type on unsupervised categorization of novel, 3D objects

Background: The Importance of Shape for Visual Categorization Rosch et al. (1976) and others have argued that the shape of objects is a fundamental determinant of category structure. In a previous study [2], we observed that after ten hours of visual exposure to a series of novel, 3D objects, subjects asked to perform free categorization in a sequential presentation task did so primarily on the basis of shape differences as opposed to texture or a combination of both. In contrast, no such preference was found after ten hours of haptic exposure.