Spontaneous Categorization Research Articles

Weaker number sense accounts for impaired numerosity perception in dyscalculia: Behavioral and computational evidence.

Impaired numerosity perception in developmental dyscalculia (low "number acuity") has been interpreted as evidence of reduced representational precision in the neurocognitive system supporting non-symbolic number sense. However, recent studies suggest that poor numerosity judgments might stem from stronger interference from non-numerical visual information, in line with alternative accounts that highlight impairments in executive functions and visuospatial abilities in the etiology of dyscalculia. To resolve this debate, we used a psychophysical method designed to disentangle the contribution of numerical and non-numerical features to explicit numerosity judgments in a dot comparison task and we assessed the relative saliency of numerosity in a spontaneous categorization task. Children with dyscalculia were compared to control children with average mathematical skills matched for age, IQ, and visuospatial memory. In the comparison task, the lower accuracy of dyscalculics compared to controls was linked to weaker encoding of numerosity, but not to the strength of non-numerical biases. Similarly, in the spontaneous categorization task, children with dyscalculia showed a weaker number-based categorization compared to the control group, with no evidence of a stronger influence of non-numerical information on category choice. Simulations with a neurocomputational model of numerosity perception showed that the reduction of representational resources affected the progressive refinement of number acuity, with little effect on non-numerical bias in numerosity judgments. Together, these results suggest that impaired numerosity perception in dyscalculia cannot be explained by increased interference from non-numerical visual cues, thereby supporting the hypothesis of a core number sense deficit. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: A strongly debated issue is whether impaired numerosity perception in dyscalculia stems from a deficit in number sense or from poor executive and visuospatial functions. Dyscalculic children show reduced precision in visual numerosity judgments and weaker number-based spontaneous categorization, but no increasing reliance on continuous visual properties. Simulations with deep neural networks demonstrate that reduced neural/computational resources affect the developmental trajectory of number acuity and account for impaired numerosity judgments. Our findings show that weaker number acuity in developmental dyscalculia is not necessarily related to increased interference from non-numerical visual cues.

The mental representation of occupational stereotypes is driven as much by their affective as by their semantic content

BackgroundStudies on person perception showed that stereotypes can be activated by presenting either characteristic traits of group members, or labels associated to these groups. However, it is not clear whether these pieces of semantic information activate negative and positive stereotypes directly, or via an indirect cognitive pathway leading through brain regions responsible for affective responses. Our main objective with this study was to disentangle the effects of semantic and affective contents. To this end, we intended to scrutinize whether the representation of occupational labels is independent of the emotions they evoke.MethodsParticipants (N = 73, M = 27.0, SD = 9.1, 31 men 42 women,) were asked to complete two tasks presented online. In the first task they had to arrange 20 occupational labels—randomly chosen from a pool of 60 items—in a two-dimensional space, moving the mouse pointer along two undefined axes. In a second task the axes’ names were defined a priori. Subjects were asked to arrange the labels according to valence, the extent to which the word evoked pleasant or unpleasant feelings, and arousal, the extent to which the word evoked excitement or calmness.ResultsBased on the final coordinates of the labels, two cluster analyses were carried out separately in the two tasks. The two clusters were compared with Fisher’s exact test, which revealed that the cluster structures overlap significantly.ConclusionsThe results suggest that the spontaneous categorization and the semantic representation of occupations rely largely on the affective state they evoke. We propose that affective content might have a primacy over detailed semantic information in many aspects of person perception, including social categorization.

Belief in biological origin of race (racial essentialism) increases sensitivities to cultural category changes measured by ERP mismatch negativity (MMN)

The dynamic multicultural view explains culture-specific effects on cognition that cultural knowledge is organized in multiple knowledge systems which are specific to each culture and differentially activated when exposed to related objects or scenes. This view predicts automatic categorizations of environmental information according to the culture-specific knowledge systems. This study investigated whether cultural information could be spontaneously categorized, and the modulation of this process by the belief in the biological origin of race (i.e., racial essentialism) with an event-related brain potential, the visual Mismatch Negativity (vMMN). Deviant pictures of Eastern (Western) culture were randomly presented in a stream of standard Western (Eastern) pictures while participants were playing a video game. Participants who endorse racial essentialism (high group) showed vMMNs to the deviants with high relevance to the Eastern or Western culture and the deviant with low Eastern relevance; while participants with low racial essentialism showed vMMN to the deviant with high Eastern relevance only. These results revealed spontaneous cultural categorization with vMMN and the top-down modulation of spontaneous categorization by personal belief. In addition, this is the first demonstration of MMNs to cultural deviance and the potentials in applying MMNs to study psychological essentialism and social categorization.

Can a dog be spontaneous?

Fugazza and Miklósi (Scientific Reports, 10(1), 3082, 2020) reported "spontaneous" categorization in a dog. I explore what it means to claim that forms of animal cognition are spontaneous.

Norm-based spontaneous categorization: Cultural norms shape meaning and memory.

When cultures have different norms for the same situation, does culture affect memory by influencing the weight individuals assign to information or also by affecting the meaning of information itself, influencing memory via categorization? We present 4 experiments showing that, in relying on contrasting cultural norms of reciprocity (Studies 1 and 2) and spiritual purity (Studies 3 and 4), Indians and Americans differ in their interpretation of and memory for identical information. Studies 1 (N = 123) and 3 (N = 78), utilizing cued-recall, and Studies 2 (N = 143) and 4 (N = 79), utilizing multiple-choice incidental-memory tests, show cultural differences in memory and categorization in culturally relevant normative domains. In Studies 1 and 2 Americans, applying their own culture-specific reciprocity norms, were more likely than Indians to interpret gifts given after receiving help as implying reciprocity. Hence, Americans (and not Indians) tended to categorize information about gifts in terms of whether it was norm-consistent or inconsistent, evidenced by memory that reflected greater within-category confusions. In Studies 3 and 4 Indians, applying their own culture-specific norms of purity, were more likely than Americans to interpret images of shoes on sacred objects as implying spiritual impurity. Thus, Indians (and not Americans) tended to categorize information about shoes in terms of whether it was norm-violating or nonviolating, evidenced by memory that reflected greater within-category confusions. Applying culturally variable norms to the same situation leads to different understandings of the same behavior, resulting in memory that reflects norm-based spontaneous categorization. We highlight the role that culture-specific norms play in cognitively predisposing individuals to organize information in the environment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Depths and limits of spontaneous categorization in a family dog

Categorization has been tested in non-human animals after extensive training procedures under laboratory conditions and it is assumed that in non-primate species categorization relies on perceptual similarity. We report evidence of the ability to categorize objects in absence of specific training in a family dog with vocabulary knowledge of multiple toys, including exemplars of 4 categories. Our experimental design was devised to test categorization in absence of specific training and based on the spontaneously learned vocal labels of the categories, a condition that mirrors human studies more than previous experiments on non-human animals. We also observed that the dog’s categorization skills were more accurate when, prior to the categorization test, she was given the opportunity to play with the novel exemplars, suggesting that category representations arise not only from physical resemblance, but also from objects’ affordances (function).

Spontaneous categorization of tools based on observation in children and chimpanzees

The acquisition of the concept of ‘tool’ remains intriguing from both developmental and comparative perspectives. Our current model of tool use development in children is based on humans’ supposedly unique ability to adopt a teleological stance: the understanding of a demonstrator’s goal-based intentions when using a tool. It is however unclear how children and chimpanzees, our closest relatives, combine their knowledge of different objects whose function is to act on other parts of the environment, and assign them to a single category of ‘tools’. Here, we used a function-based approach to address this question. We exposed 7 to 11-year-old children and adult chimpanzees to a Matching-to-Function (MTF) task to explore whether they would sort tools and non-tools separately after demonstration of their function by an experimenter. MTF is a variant of Matching-to-Sample where the sample and the target are from the same category/kind rather than identical. Around 40% of children paired objects according to their function in the MTF task, with only one child younger than 8 years doing so. Moreover, when verbally questioned, these children offered a function-based answer to explain their choices. One of six chimpanzees also successfully paired objects according to function. Children and at least one chimpanzee can thus spontaneously sort tools into functional categories based on observing a demonstrator. The success of a single chimpanzee in our task suggests that teleological reasoning might already have been present in our last common ancestor but also shows that human children more readily conceptualize tools in a spontaneous fashion.

SPONTANEOUS CATEGORIZATION AND SELF-LEARNING WITH DEEP AUTOENCODER MODELS

У цій роботі автор досліджував обробку інформації у моделях глибокого автокодування. Було продемонстровано що непідконтрольне навчання автокодерам певного класу може призвести до появи компактного та структурованого внутрішнього представлення простору вхідних даних, що може бути співвіднесено з категоріями вищого рівня. Була запропонована і продемонстрована практичнa можливість виявити та виміряти цю формується інформаційну структуру шляхом застосування непідконтрольного кластеризації щільності в просторі активації фокусного прихованого шару моделі. На основі отриманих висновків запропонований новий підхід до навчання моделей нейронних мереж, що базується на структурах виникаючих у в неконтрольованом інформаційному середовищі навчання, який є ітеративним, керованим навколишнім середовищем, вимагає мінімального нагляду та з подібністю до вивчення біологічних систем i також дає хороші результати класифікації при навчанні нових концепцій вищого рівня навіть при мінімальному наборі маркованих даних. На закінчення надається обговорення теоретичних основ спонтанної категоризації в системах самонавчання.

Spontaneous categorization along competence in partner and leader evaluations

Abstract Successful cooperation requires a partner both willing and capable of contributing to a joint endeavour. Accordingly, partner choice psychology should include mechanisms to distinguish between people with good and bad intentions, and between people who are competent and incompetent. While it is well established that intentions influence partner choice, the literature offers mixed evidence concerning people's ability to gauge competence in social interactions. Theoretical accounts in leadership-followership psychology and food-sharing imply that partner competence can influence the estimated future benefits from cooperation. The available empirical evidence, however, is limited to leadership evaluations in the political science literature. This paper thus investigates if people have dedicated cognitive mechanisms, which have evolved to categorize potential social partners on competence. It looks at competence both in regular social partnerships and leader-follower relations. In a series of four experiments relying on the memory confusion protocol, it demonstrates that people spontaneously distinguish between competent and incompetent social partners. This mental categorization is present equally in partner and leader evaluations. These results have interesting implications for partner choice literature and evolutionary leadership theories.

The Emergent Nature of Culturally Meaningful Categorization and Language Use

Although the phenomenon of social categorization is universal, we argue that different cultures promote different types of categorization and that this is associated with differential language practice. We predicted that, among Japanese (but not among Italian) participants, even a small age difference would be sufficient to trigger spontaneous categorization of other people. We hypothesized that the categorization process would be reflected on a particular pattern of memory bias (i.e., within-category assimilation and between-category contrast). We further tested the hypothesis that specific language styles (i.e., polite vs. intimate) would accompany the age-based categorization effect. In Study 1, we applied the “Who said what?” paradigm, finding the expected pattern of differential memory bias only among Japanese, but not Italians. There was also an indication of selective language use corresponding to the age-based categorization. Study 2 replicated the age-based categorization among Japanese participants and provided visible evidence that the sensitivity in choosing appropriate language styles co-occur with memory bias. We discuss implications of these findings for understanding the complex interplay between culture, language, and social cognition.

Discrete Neocortical Dynamics Predict Behavioral Categorization of Sounds

The ability to group stimuli into perceptual categories is essential for efficient interaction with the environment. Discrete dynamics that emerge in brain networks are believed to be the neuronal correlate of category formation. Observations of such dynamics have recently been made; however, it is still unresolved if they actually match perceptual categories. Using invivo two-photon calcium imaging inthe auditory cortex of mice, we show that local network activity evoked by sounds is constrained to few response modes. Transitions between response modes are characterized by an abrupt switch, indicating attractor-like, discrete dynamics. Moreover, we show that local cortical responses quantitatively predict discrimination performance and spontaneous categorization of sounds in behaving mice. Our results therefore demonstrate that local nonlinear dynamics in the auditory cortex generate spontaneous sound categories which can be selected for behavioral or perceptual decisions.

Another fundamental social category? Spontaneous categorization of people who uphold or violate moral norms

Studies of social categorization have shown that humans robustly categorize others along dimensions of sex, age, kinship, and coalition. Drawing on a functional perspective, we predicted that humans should also categorize others along the dimension of morality (i.e., violating vs. upholding moral norms). In a study employing the memory confusion paradigm, university undergraduate participants (N=39) were presented with same-sex targets randomly matched with sentences indicating violation or upholding of moral norms, and with sentences indicating competence or incompetence. Results showed that participants spontaneously categorized along morality but not along competence, suggesting that morality (beyond general valence) may be an important dimension of social categorization.

Spontaneous Gender Categorization in Masking and Priming Studies: Key for Distinguishing Jane from John Doe but Not Madonna from Sinatra

Facial recognition is key to social interaction, however with unfamiliar faces only generic information, in the form of facial stereotypes such as gender and age is available. Therefore is generic information more prominent in unfamiliar versus familiar face processing? In order to address the question we tapped into two relatively disparate stages of face processing. At the early stages of encoding, we employed perceptual masking to reveal that only perception of unfamiliar face targets is affected by the gender of the facial masks. At the semantic end; using a priming paradigm, we found that while to-be-ignored unfamiliar faces prime lexical decisions to gender congruent stereotypic words, familiar faces do not. Our findings indicate that gender is a more salient dimension in unfamiliar relative to familiar face processing, both in early perceptual stages as well as later semantic stages of person construal.

Automatic prejudice in childhood and early adolescence.

Four cross-sectional studies are presented that investigated the automatic activation of prejudice in children and adolescents (aged 9 years to 15 years). Therefore, 4 different versions of the affective priming task were used, with pictures of ingroup and outgroup members being presented as prejudice-related prime stimuli. In all 4 studies, a pattern occurred that suggests a linear developmental increase of automatic prejudice with significant effects of outgroup negativity appearing only around the ages of 12 to 13 years. Results of younger children, on the contrary, did not indicate any effect of automatic prejudice activation. In contrast, prejudice effects in an Implicit Association Test (IAT) showed high levels of prejudice independent of age (Study 3). Results of Study 4 suggest that these age differences are due to age-related differences in spontaneous categorization processes. Introducing a forced-categorization into the affective priming procedure produced a pattern of results equivalent to that obtained with the IAT. These results suggest that although children are assumed to acquire prejudice at much younger ages, automatization of such attitudes might be related to developmental processes in early adolescence. We discuss possible theoretical implications of these results for a developmental theory of prejudice representation and automatization during childhood and adolescence.

Spontaneous categorization of vocal imitations in African grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus)

The ability to categorize elements of the environment is a fundamental aspect of information processing. Many experiments demonstrate the ability of birds and non-human primates to classify items according to their perceptual similarities. Few data are available regarding spontaneous classification of items according to a non-perceptual account in non-human animals. Here, we report unexpected results obtained with African grey parrots learning the referential use of French labels. Parrots did not learn the correct labels but they spontaneously produced more labels corresponding to food when a food item was presented to them and more labels corresponding to an object when shown an object item, although they were never rewarded for doing so. These results demonstrate a form of spontaneous categorization by using vocal imitation of the human language.

The neural basis of overall similarity and single-dimension sorting

The ability to group stimuli into meaningful categories is fundamental to natural behavior. Raw perceptions would be useless without an ability to classify items as, for example, threat or food. Previous work suggests that people have a tendency to group stimuli either on the basis of a single dimension or by overall similarity (e.g., Milton, F.N., Longmore, C.A., and Wills, A.J. (2008). Processes of overall similarity sorting in free classification. J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform, 34, 676–692.). It has recently been suggested that overall similarity sorting can engage similar rule-based processes to single-dimension sorting and, in addition, requires greater use of working memory (Milton, F.N., and Wills, A.J. (2004). The influences of stimulus properties on category construction. J. Exp. Psychol. Learn. Mem. Cogn, 30, 407–415.). These predictions were tested in an event-related fMRI study of spontaneous categorization. Results showed a striking overlap of activation between overall similarity and single-dimension sorting indicating engagement of common neural processes. Furthermore, overall similarity sorting recruited additional activity in bilateral precuneus, right cuneus, left cerebellum, left postcentral gyrus, right thalamus and right ventrolateral frontal cortex (VLFC). Our findings suggest that overall similarity sorting can be the result of rule-based processes and highlight a potential role for right VLFC in integrating multi-dimensional sensory information to form conceptual categories.

One or two dimensions in spontaneous classification: A simplicity approach

When participants are asked to spontaneously categorize a set of items, they typically produce unidimensional classifications, i.e., categorize the items on the basis of only one of their dimensions of variation. We examine whether it is possible to predict unidimensional vs. two-dimensional classification on the basis of the abstract stimulus structure, by employing Pothos and Chater’s simplicity model of spontaneous categorization [Pothos, E. M., & Chater, N. (2002). A simplicity principle in unsupervised human categorization. Cognitive Science, 26, 303–343]. The simplicity model provides a quantitative measure of how intuitive a particular classification is. With objects represented in two dimensions, we propose that a unidimensional classification will be preferred if it is more intuitive than all possible two-dimensional ones, and vice versa. Empirical results supporting this proposal are reported. Implications for Goodman’s paradox are discussed.

Spontaneous processing of abstract categorical information in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex.

In various aspects of linguistic analysis and human cognition, some forms of observed variation are ignored in the service of handling more abstract categories. In the absence of training, rhesus discriminate between different types of vocalizations based on the information conveyed as opposed to their acoustic morphologies. We hypothesized that neurons in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vPFC), an area involved in auditory-object processing, might be involved in this spontaneous categorization. To test this hypothesis, we recorded vPFC activity while rhesus listened to vocalizations conveying information about food and non-food events. Results showed between, but not within category discrimination. That is, vPFC neurons discriminated between vocalizations associated with food versus non-food events but not within the class of food calls associated with differences in quality. These results indicate that the vPFC plays a significant role in spontaneously processing abstract categorical information.

The Neurophysiology of Functionally Meaningful Categories: Macaque Ventrolateral Prefrontal Cortex Plays a Critical Role in Spontaneous Categorization of Species-Specific Vocalizations

Neurophysiological studies in nonhuman primates have demonstrated that the prefrontal cortex (PFC) plays a critical role in the acquisition of learned categories following training. What is presently unclear is whether this cortical area also plays a role in spontaneous recognition and discrimination of natural categories. Here, we explore this possibility by recording from neurons in the PFC while rhesus listen to species-specific vocalizations that vary in terms of their social function and acoustic morphology. We found that ventral prefrontal cortex (vPFC) activity, on average, did not differentiate between food calls that were associated with the same functional category, despite having different acoustic properties. In contrast, vPFC activity differentiated between food calls associated with different functional classes and specifically, information about the quality and motivational value of the food. These results suggest that the vPFC is involved in the categorization of socially meaningful signals, thereby both extending its previously conceived role in the acquisition of learned categories and showing the significance of using natural categorical distinctions in the study of neural mechanisms.

Ethnography and Experiments: Cultural Models and Expertise Effects Elicited with Experimental Research Techniques

This article reports the results of two independent studies dealing with saliency effects within the domain of folkbiological knowledge. In study 1, the authors present data from a free-listing task that explored tree-name generation among Tzotzil Maya of Zinacantán (Chiapas). Study 2 compares Menominee Native Americans with majority culture (nonprofessional) fish experts in central Wisconsin. The studies explore patterns of informant agreement and disagreement, looking at the accessibility of certain kinds of biological knowledge, both within and across cultural groups. The authors show that differences in levels of expertise and practice, as well as habitual patterns of knowledge organization (spontaneous categorization), can lead to significant differences in the salience or accessibility of certain types of knowledge.