Conjuctions of visually based categories: overextension and compensation.

The degree to which overextension effects found with conjunctions of semantic categories, such as sports and games (J. A. Hampton, 1988), would generalize to categories of visual stimuli was tested in 4 experiments. Overextension occurs when participants categorize a stimulus in the conjunction of 2 categories but fail to categorize the same stimulus as belonging to 1 of the 2 constituent categories considered individually. Stimuli for the present experiments were ambiguous colored letter shapes and cartoon faces that could vary along dimensions of happiness and either apparent intelligence or apparent age. Overextension was found with both stimulus sets, thus showing that the phenomenon is not restricted to categorization in superordinate semantic categories. There was also evidence that typicality in 1 category could compensate for borderline membership of the other. More overextension was found for faces than for letters, and there was evidence for asymmetric compensation between category dimensions.

[1]  J. Hampton.  Polymorphous Concepts in Semantic Memory , 1979 .

[2]  J. Hampton.  Overextension of Conjunctive Concepts: Evidence for a Unitary Model of Concept Typicality and Class Inclusion , 1988 .

[3]  W. W. Daniel.  Applied Nonparametric Statistics , 1979 .

[4]  R. Freedle.  Discourse production and comprehension , 1978 .

[5]  Ryszard S. Michalski,et al.  Categories and Concepts: Theoretical Views and Inductive Data Analysis , 1993 .

[6]  J. Hampton.  Inheritance of attributes in natural concept conjunctions , 1987, Memory & cognition.

[7]  Gregory Ashby,et al.  Decision rules in the perception and categorization of multidimensional stimuli. , 1988, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[8]  F. Moore.  Cognitive development and the acquisition of language , 1973 .

[9]  Gregory V. Jones.  Stacks not fuzzy sets: An ordinal basis for prototype theory of concepts , 1982, Cognition.

[10]  I. Mechelen,et al.  Structural analysis of the intension and extension of semantic concepts , 1994 .

[11]  E. Rosch,et al.  Family resemblances: Studies in the internal structure of categories , 1975, Cognitive Psychology.

[12]  Gregory L. Murphy,et al.  Comprehending Complex Concepts , 1988, Cogn. Sci..

[13]  L. Hedges,et al.  Combining graded categories: membership and typicality. , 1994, Psychological review.

[14]  Toshiyuki Yamashita,et al.  Integration of Fuzzy Logical Information in Human Judgments , 1990 .

[15]  Dale T. Miller,et al.  Combining Social Concepts: The Role of Causal Reasoning , 1990, Cogn. Sci..

[16]  Edward E. Smith,et al.  On the adequacy of prototype theory as a theory of concepts , 1981, Cognition.

[17]  M. McCloskey,et al.  Natural categories: Well defined or fuzzy sets? , 1978 .

[18]  Nick Chater,et al.  WHY ARE CONJUNCTIVE CATEGORIES OVEREXTENDED , 1990 .

[19]  D. Massaro.  Speech Perception By Ear and Eye: A Paradigm for Psychological Inquiry , 1989 .

[20]  E. Rosch.  ON THE INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF PERCEPTUAL AND SEMANTIC CATEGORIES1 , 1973 .

[21]  E. Rosch.  Cognitive Representations of Semantic Categories. , 1975 .

[22]  B. Abbott,et al.  The Psychology of Word Meanings. , 1992 .

[23]  Iven Mechelen,et al.  Dominance and noncommutativity effects in concept conjunctions: Extensional or intensional basis? , 1993, Memory & cognition.

[24]  S. Shott,et al.  Nonparametric Statistics , 2018, The Encyclopedia of Archaeological Sciences.

[25]  Lance J. Rips,et al.  Combining Prototypes: A Selective Modification Model , 1988, Cogn. Sci..

[26]  S. Hampson.  Reconciling inconsistent information: Impressions of personality from combinations of traits , 1990 .

[27]  A. Tversky.  Features of Similarity , 1977 .