Journey to the center of the category: the dissociation in amnesia between categorization and recognition.

The authors' theoretical analysis of the dissociation in amnesia between categorization and recognition suggests these conclusions: (a) Comparing to-be-categorized items to a category center or prototype produces strong prototype advantages and steep typicality gradients, whereas comparing to-be-categorized items to the training exemplars that surround the prototype produces weak prototype advantages and flat typicality gradients; (b) participants often show the former pattern, suggesting their use of prototypes; (c) exemplar models account poorly for these categorization data, but prototype models account well for them; and (d) the recognition data suggest that controls use a single-comparison exemplar-memorization process more powerfully than amnesics. By pairing categorization based in prototypes with recognition based in exemplar memorization, the authors support and extend other recent accounts of cognitive performance that intermix prototypes and exemplars, and the authors reinforce traditional interpretations of the categorization-recognition dissociation in amnesia.

[1]  Robert M. Nosofsky,et al.  Dissociations Between Categorization and Recognition in Amnesic and Normal Individuals: An Exemplar-Based Interpretation , 1998 .

[2]  J. D. Smith,et al.  Prototypes in category learning: the effects of category size, category structure, and stimulus complexity. , 2001, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[3]  Douglas L. Hintzman,et al.  "Schema Abstraction" in a Multiple-Trace Memory Model , 1986 .

[4]  F. Hayes-Roth,et al.  Concept learning and the recognition and classification of exemplars , 1977 .

[5]  R M Nosofsky,et al.  Recognition memory for exceptions to the category rule. , 1995, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[6]  R. Nosofsky.  Exemplar-Based Accounts of Relations Between Classification, Recognition, and Typicality , 1988 .

[7]  J. D. Smith,et al.  Comparing prototype-based and exemplar-based accounts of category learning and attentional allocation. , 2002, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[8]  E. Rosch,et al.  Cognition and Categorization , 1980 .

[9]  D. Homa,et al.  Limitations of exemplar-based generalization and the abstraction of categorical information. , 1981 .

[10]  L. Squire,et al.  Learning about categories in the absence of memory. , 1995, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[11]  D. L. Hintzman,et al.  Differential forgetting of prototypes and old instances: Simulation by an exemplar-based classification model , 1980, Memory & cognition.

[12]  M. Posner,et al.  Perceived distance and the classification of distorted patterns. , 1967, Journal of experimental psychology.

[13]  R. Nosofsky.  Attention, similarity, and the identification-categorization relationship. , 1986, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[14]  J. P. Minda,et al.  Straight talk about linear separability , 1997 .

[15]  J. Metcalfe,et al.  The relation between recognition memory and classification learning , 1986, Memory & cognition.

[16]  J. Omohundro.  Recognition vs. classification of ill-defined category exemplars , 1981 .

[17]  P. Reber,et al.  Contrasting cortical activity associated with category memory and recognition memory. , 1998, Learning & memory.

[18]  R. Nosofsky,et al.  Selective attention and the formation of linear decision boundaries. , 1996, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[19]  John R. Anderson,et al.  A General Learning Theory and its Application to Schema Abstraction1 , 1979 .

[20]  R. Nosofsky.  Attention and learning processes in the identification and categorization of integral stimuli. , 1987, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[21]  L. Squire,et al.  Structure and function of declarative and nondeclarative memory systems. , 1996, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[22]  R. Nosofsky,et al.  Rule-plus-exception model of classification learning. , 1994, Psychological review.

[23]  J. Jenkins,et al.  Abstraction over time of prototypes from distortions of random dot patterns: A replication , 1970 .

[24]  T. Palmeri,et al.  Learning About Categories in the Absence of Training: Profound Amnesia and the Relationship Between Perceptual Categorization and Recognition Memory , 1999 .

[25]  R. Nosofsky.  Tests of an exemplar model for relating perceptual classification and recognition memory. , 1991, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[26]  M. Gluck,et al.  Probabilistic classification learning in amnesia. , 1994, Learning & memory.

[27]  D. Homa.  Prototype abstraction and classification of new instances as a function of number of instances defining the prototype , 1973 .

[28]  Daniel F. Chambliss,et al.  Evolution of conceptual structure , 1979 .

[29]  R M Nosofsky,et al.  Similarity-scaling studies of dot-pattern classification and recognition. , 1992, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[30]  B. Fischhoff,et al.  Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory , 1980 .

[31]  J. D. Smith,et al.  Thirty categorization results in search of a model. , 2000, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[32]  Jennifer A. Mangels,et al.  A Neostriatal Habit Learning System in Humans , 1996, Science.

[33]  M. Posner,et al.  Retention of Abstract Ideas. , 1970 .

[34]  M. Posner,et al.  UNCERTAINTY AS A PREDICTOR OF SIMILARITY IN THE STUDY OF GENERALIZATION. , 1964, Journal of experimental psychology.

[35]  P J Reber,et al.  Cortical areas supporting category learning identified using functional MRI. , 1998, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[36]  L. Squire,et al.  The learning of categories: parallel brain systems for item memory and category knowledge. , 1993, Science.