Learning Features of Representation in Conceptual Context

When people categorize an object, they often encode a c rt in numberof its properties for later classification. In Schyns and Murphy (1993), we suggested that the way people group objects into categories could induce the learning of new dimensions of ca egorization--i.e., dimensions that did not exist prior to the experience with the categorization system. In this research, we examine whether the context of known concepts can influence feature extraction. The first experiment simply tested whether the context of different object categories could change th erception of the same target stimuli. The second experiment examinedwhether learning category Bgiven the concept of categoryAmay result in different features being learned that learningAgiven B. The results showed that the context of known concepts influence the features people learn to represent