Reversing Category Exclusivities in Infant Perceptual Categorization: Simulations and Data

Three- to four-month-old infants presented with a series of cat or dog photographs show an unusual asymmetry in the exclusivity of the perceptual category representations formed. We have previously accounted for this asymmetry in terms of an inclusion asymmetry in the distribution of features present in the cat and dog images used during familiarization (Mareschal, French, & Quinn, 2000). We use a combination of connectionist modeling and experimental testing of infants to show that the asymmetry can be reversed by an appropriate pre-selection and minor image modification of cat and dog exemplars used for familiarization. The reversal of the asymmetry adds weight to the feature distribution explanation put forward by Mareschal et al. (2000).