Categories in conflict: Combating the application of an intuitive conception of inheritance with category construction

2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Premo ◽  
Andy Cavagnetto ◽  
Garrett Honke ◽  
Kenneth J. Kurtz
Keyword(s):  
Category Construction

scholarly journals Under the Umbrella: Goal-Derived Category Construction and Product Category Nesting

2021 ◽  
pp. 000183922110123
Author(s):  
Johnny Boghossian ◽  
Robert J. David
Keyword(s):  
Process Model ◽  
Product Category ◽  
Derived Category ◽  
The State ◽  
Product Attributes ◽  
Product Categories ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Market Intermediaries ◽  
Category Construction

Categories are organized vertically, with product categories nested under larger umbrella categories. Meaning flows from umbrella categories to the categories beneath them, such that the construction of a new umbrella category can significantly reshape the categorical landscape. This paper explores the construction of a new umbrella category and the nesting beneath it of a product category. Specifically, we study the construction of the Quebec terroir products umbrella category and the nesting of the Quebec artisanal cheese product category under this umbrella. Our analysis shows that the construction of umbrella categories can unfold entirely separately from that of product categories and can follow a distinct categorization process. Whereas the construction of product categories may be led by entrepreneurs who make salient distinctive product attributes, the construction of umbrella categories may be led by “macro actors” removed from the market. We found that these macro actors followed a goal-derived categorization process: they first defined abstract goals and ideals for the umbrella category and only subsequently sought to populate it with product categories. Among the macro actors involved, the state played a central role in defining the meaning of the Quebec terroir category and mobilizing other macro actors into the collective project, a finding that suggests an expanded role of the state in category construction. We also found that market intermediaries are important in the nesting of product categories beneath new umbrella categories, notably by projecting identities onto producers consistent with the goals of the umbrella category. We draw on these findings to develop a process model of umbrella category construction and product category nesting.

scholarly journals Sorting out the problem of inert knowledge: Category construction to promote spontaneous transfer

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth J. Kurtz ◽  
Garrett Honke
Keyword(s):  
Human Cognition ◽  
Sorting Task ◽  
Transfer Of Knowledge ◽  
Construction Technique ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Baseline Task ◽  
Fundamental Goal ◽  
Spontaneous Transfer ◽  
Analogical Problem ◽  
Category Construction

A fundamental goal in the study of human cognition is to understand the transfer of knowledge. This goes hand-in-hand with the translational goal of promoting such transfer via instructional techniques. Despite a rich history of research using the analogical problem-solving paradigm, no study activity has been found to produce a robust rate of successful spontaneous transfer—even when the test is immediate. We propose the category status hypothesis as an explanation of the difficulty of transfer and as motivation for a novel approach to promoting transfer. We report a set of experiments evaluating a category construction technique based on a sorting task. In Experiment 1a, we found category construction to be significantly more effective than the ‘gold standard’ of schema abstraction through comparison of two analogous cases. In Experiment 1b, we explored a variation of the category construction technique that did not reliably differ in effectiveness from comparison-based schema abstraction—we also verified that both study tasks were superior to a baseline task of separate summarization of two cases. In Experiment 2, we conducted a replication of the initial design with higher power and confirmed the significant advantage for category construction over schema abstraction via comparison. In Experiment 3, we compared category construction to an information-consistent reading comprehension control in order to evaluate competing interpretations of the category construction advantage found in Experiments 1 and 2. We discuss theoretical and applied implications of these findings.

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