Abstract
It is commonly believed that exemplar models have difficulty accounting for more accurate classification of items at the lower level of a nested hierarchy than classification of these items at a more general level. We identified groups of similarly performing participants in an experiment where such a hierarchically organised category structure had to be mastered and fitted a differently parameterised version of the ALCOVE exemplar model to each of these groups. The exemplar model had no difficulty predicting better performance at the lower level of the hierarchy than at a more general level for those groups of participants that actually displayed the supposedly challenging behavioural pattern.
Highlights
MethodEighteen undergraduate students participated in the Verheyen et al experiment (2008)
With exemplar theory shown to be adequate in dealing with classification at a single level of abstraction as well as classification at multiple levels of generality, it is up to proponents of rivalling theories to establish their models’ validity in regard to both these phenomena as well
Summary
Eighteen undergraduate students participated in the Verheyen et al experiment (2008). For 25 blocks they classified the 12 artificial stimuli into two general categories. For another 25 blocks they classified the same 12 stimuli into four subordinate categories This provided us with two separate learning curves for every participant; one at each level of abstraction. Participants who are fast at establishing the hierarchical relationship between both stages of the classification experiment should demonstrate a learning advantage over participants who are not. Since the former participants can bring the knowledge they acquired during the first learning stage to bear on the second one, they should exhibit more rapidly decreasing learning curves than the latter participants
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