TY - JOUR
T1 - Memory for category information is idealized through contrast with competing options
AU - Davis, Tyler
AU - Love, Bradley C.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by an Air Force Office of Scientific Research grant (FA9550-04-1-0226) and a National Science Foundation grant (0349101) to Bradley C. Love.
PY - 2010
Y1 - 2010
N2 - We suggest that human category formation relies on contrastive learning mechanisms that seek to reduce prediction error. In keeping with this view, manipulating category contrast leads to systematic distortions in people's memory for category information. Simply by changing the basis of comparison (i.e., the available response options), we can systematically distort people's perceptions of novel, energy-source, and political categories. Our proposal explains perceived variations in category members' typicality, including cases in which average items are judged as highly typical and cases in which extreme or ideal members are judged as highly typical of the category. Although straightforward, our account spans findings from studies in goal-derived, cross-cultural, and object-based categorization and suggests ways in which society's perception of key issues is distorted by political discourse.
AB - We suggest that human category formation relies on contrastive learning mechanisms that seek to reduce prediction error. In keeping with this view, manipulating category contrast leads to systematic distortions in people's memory for category information. Simply by changing the basis of comparison (i.e., the available response options), we can systematically distort people's perceptions of novel, energy-source, and political categories. Our proposal explains perceived variations in category members' typicality, including cases in which average items are judged as highly typical and cases in which extreme or ideal members are judged as highly typical of the category. Although straightforward, our account spans findings from studies in goal-derived, cross-cultural, and object-based categorization and suggests ways in which society's perception of key issues is distorted by political discourse.
KW - Categorization
KW - Category contrast
KW - Category distortion
KW - Idealization
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77951277138&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0956797609357712
DO - 10.1177/0956797609357712
M3 - Article
C2 - 20424052
AN - SCOPUS:77951277138
SN - 0956-7976
VL - 21
SP - 234
EP - 242
JO - Psychological Science
JF - Psychological Science
IS - 2
ER -