LABELS FACILITATE LEARNING OF NOVEL CATEGORIES

A major feature that sets language apart from other communication systems is the use of categorylabels—words. In addition to providing a means of communication, there is growing evidence that category labels play a role in the formation and shaping of concepts. If verbal labels help humans acquire or use category information, one can ask whether it is easier to learn labeled categories compared to unlabeled ones. Normal English-speaking adults participated in a category-learning task in which categories were labeled or unlabeled. The presence of labels facilitated the learning of unfamiliar categories and resulted in more robust category representations. The advantage for acquiring named categories was observed even though the category labels did not convey any additional information and all participants had equivalent experience categorizing the stimuli. This work provides empirical support for the idea of labels as conceptual anchor points (Clark, 1997).