How do we categorize ambiguous category members? categories encountered recently influence judgments about category membership

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adem F. Aydogan
Keyword(s):  
Category Membership ◽  
Ambiguous Category

Dangerous and distinctive properties bias category judgments late in development

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Noyes ◽  
Yarrow Dunham ◽  
Frank Keil
Keyword(s):  
Middle Childhood ◽  
Category Membership ◽  
Water Mixture ◽  
Conceptual Representation ◽  
Developmental Approach ◽  
Low Level ◽  
Cross Domain ◽  
Ambiguous Category

When faced with entities with potentially ambiguous category membership, adult category judgments are strongly biased towards dangerous and distinctive properties. For example, a cyanide-water mixture is categorized as cyanide. We used a developmental approach to better understand this cross-domain effect, which we term the asymmetric categorization of mixtures (ACM). According to ACM, attention is biased towards perceived dangerous or distinctive properties, making them prominent in conceptual representation. We consider whether ACM is driven entirely by low-level processes of attention, or whether ACM might require the integration of attention with causal-explanatory reasoning. We argue that ACM requires forms of reasoning that only emerge robustly in middle childhood. Across three studies (N = 270), we find that ACM emerges only after the 7th year for liquids (Study 1-3), and even later for race (Study 1 and 3). Results are discussed in terms of competing theoretical accounts of ACM.

Constructing and Deconstructing Concepts

2016 ◽  
Vol 63 (5) ◽  
pp. 249-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles A. Doan ◽  
Ronaldo Vigo
Keyword(s):  
Information Theory ◽  
Model Performance ◽  
Unsupervised Classification ◽  
Family Resemblance ◽  
Category Membership ◽  
Formal Models ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
One Dimensional ◽  
Relational Patterns ◽  
Optimal Classification

Abstract. Several empirical investigations have explored whether observers prefer to sort sets of multidimensional stimuli into groups by employing one-dimensional or family-resemblance strategies. Although one-dimensional sorting strategies have been the prevalent finding for these unsupervised classification paradigms, several researchers have provided evidence that the choice of strategy may depend on the particular demands of the task. To account for this disparity, we propose that observers extract relational patterns from stimulus sets that facilitate the development of optimal classification strategies for relegating category membership. We conducted a novel constrained categorization experiment to empirically test this hypothesis by instructing participants to either add or remove objects from presented categorical stimuli. We employed generalized representational information theory (GRIT; Vigo, 2011b , 2013a , 2014 ) and its associated formal models to predict and explain how human beings chose to modify these categorical stimuli. Additionally, we compared model performance to predictions made by a leading prototypicality measure in the literature.

Categorization and feature specification in phonological acquisition

1996 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 397-415 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith A. Gierut
Keyword(s):  
Distinctive Feature ◽  
Conceptual Knowledge ◽  
Category Membership ◽  
Classification Task ◽  
Linguistic Knowledge ◽  
Phonological Acquisition ◽  
Phonological Categories ◽  
Linguistic Input ◽  
Phonological Contrasts ◽  
Free Classification

ABSTRACTDistinctive feature specification and representation in phonological acquisition are examined in the context of underspecification theory. Subjects were 30 children (aged 3;1 to 5;10) who exhibited systematic differences in their linguistic knowledge of target phonological contrasts. A free classification task was used to tap children's conceptual knowledge of these contrasts, with features of place and manner experimentally manipulated. Three questions were addressed: which features do children use to categorize segmentai information, do the defining features of a category shift as the phonological system advances, and which framework of underspecification theory best accounts for the results? All children categorized segments on the basis of marked nonredundant featural properties, and used only one feature value to define category membership consistent with radical underspecification. Linguistic knowledge and linguistic input both influenced children's category judgements, but to different degrees. The emergence of phonological categories involved increasing feature differentiation as the child's productive phonology advanced.

scholarly journals Relationship between insulin sensitivity and menstrual cycle is modified by BMI, fitness and physical activity in NHANES

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirstin A MacGregor ◽  
Iain J Gallagher ◽  
Colin N Moran
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Insulin Resistance ◽  
Insulin Sensitivity ◽  
Menstrual Cycle ◽  
Cardiorespiratory Fitness ◽  
Resistance Index ◽  
Premenopausal Women ◽  
Category Membership ◽  
Insulin Resistance Index ◽  
Homeostatic Model

Abstract Context There is evidence demonstrating variation in insulin sensitivity across the menstrual cycle. However, to date, research has yielded inconsistent results. Objective This study investigated variation in insulin sensitivity across the menstrual cycle and associations with BMI, physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness. Design Data from 1906 premenopausal women in NHANES cycles 1999-2006 were analysed. Main outcome measures Menstrual cycle day was assessed using questionnaire responses recording days since last period. Rhythmic variation of plasma glucose, triglyceride and insulin, homeostatic model of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) and adipose tissue insulin resistance index (ADIPO-IR) across the menstrual cycle were analysed using cosinor rhythmometry. Participants were assigned low or high categories of BMI, physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness and category membership included in cosinor models as covariates. Results Rhythmicity was demonstrated by a significant cosine fit for glucose (p= 0.014) but not triglyceride (p= 0.369), insulin (p= 0.470), HOMA-IR (p=0.461) and ADIPO-IR (p= 0.335). When covariates were included, rhythmicity was observed when adjusting for: 1. BMI: glucose (p< 0.001), triglyceride (p< 0.001), insulin (p< 0.001), HOMA-IR (p< 0.001) and ADIPO-IR (p< 0.001); 2. Physical activity: glucose (p< 0.001), triglyceride (p= 0.006) and ADIPO-IR (p= 0.038); 3. Cardiorespiratory fitness: triglyceride (p= 0.041), insulin (p= 0.002), HOMA-IR (p= 0.004) and ADIPO-IR (p= 0.004). Triglyceride amplitude, but not acrophase, was greater in the high physical activity category compared to low (p=0.018). Conclusions Rhythmicity in insulin sensitivity and associated metabolites across the menstrual cycle are modified by BMI, physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness.

scholarly journals The Role of Elision in Evolutionary Processes

Languages ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 12
Author(s):  
María Azofra Sierra
Keyword(s):  
Language Change ◽  
Evolutionary Process ◽  
Category Membership ◽  
Evolutionary Processes ◽  
Linguistic Change ◽  
Specific Meaning ◽  
Theoretical Overview

Changes by elision—as well as those due to processes of adfunctionalization or refunctionalization—must be taken into account as explanatory mechanisms of linguistic change. In this paper, we study the role of elision in the theoretical overview of explanatory theories of language change by focusing on the evolutionary process of the Spanish adverb aparte. We analyze the consequences of the elision of an initial construction for the development of new functions as an exceptive or additive adverb, and as an additive connector with a specific meaning, conditioned by the evolution of the entire construction. We find that, in this case, the ellipsis of a verbal element has led to important modifications of the preserved item (aparte), not only at the semantic-pragmatic and functional levels but also in its category membership.

Nouns, verbs and syntactic backsliding in Khmer

2003 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 505-528 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Haiman ◽  
Noeurng Ourn
Keyword(s):  
Category Membership ◽  
The Status

One of the difficulties in parsing Khmer is that morphosyntactic clues about the category membership of words are either lacking or misleading. In particular, words which seem to have the status of deverbal nominalizations because of a derivational infix -Vm(n)- are in fact “still”functioning as verbs. It may be that this phenomenon of “syntactic backsliding” provides novel evidence for the hypothesis that this infix was originally meaningless, and that infixation arose in Khmer via the process of “secretion”.

scholarly journals Revealing Criterial Vagueness in Inconsistencies

Open Mind ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 41-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Verheyen ◽  
Anne White ◽  
Paul Égré
Keyword(s):  
Mixture Model ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Model Analysis ◽  
Category Membership ◽  
Category Label ◽  
Probabilistic Process ◽  
Nominal Categories

Sixty undergraduate students made category membership decisions for each of 132 candidate exemplar-category name pairs (e.g., chess – Sports) in each of two separate sessions. They were frequently inconsistent from one session to the next, both for nominal categories such as Sports and Fish, and ad hoc categories such as Things You Rescue from a Burning House. A mixture model analysis revealed that several of these inconsistencies could be attributed to criterial vagueness: participants adopting different criteria for membership in the two sessions. This finding indicates that categorization is a probabilistic process, whereby the conditions for applying a category label are not invariant. Individuals have various functional meanings of nominal categories at their disposal and entertain competing goals for ad hoc categories.

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