Cited by 131Categorization, perception, and languageMemory Processes and InfluencesCognitive Science and Education Research

Basing Categorization on Individuals and Events

Barsalou, Lawrence W., Huttenlocher, Janellen, Lamberts, Koen·1998·Cognitive Psychology

Abstract

Exemplar, prototype, and connectionist models typically assume that events constitute the basic unit of learning and representation in categorization. In these models, each learning events updates a statistical representation of a category independently of other learning events. An implication is that events involving the same individual affect learning independently and are not integrated into a single structure that represents the individual in an internal model of the world. A series of experiments demonstrates that human subjects track individuals across events, establish representations of them, and use these representations in categorization. These findings are consistent with "representationalism," the view that an internal model of the world constitutes a physical level of representation in the brain, and that the brain does not simply capture the statistical properties of events in an undifferentiated dynamical system. Although categorization is an inherently statistical process that produces generalization, pattern completion, frequency effects, and adaptive learning, it is also an inherently representational process that establishes an internal model of the world. As a result, representational structures evolve in memory to track the histories of individuals, accumulate information about them, and simulate them in events.

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Registry

Crossref · 10.1006/cogp.1998.0687

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Authors
Barsalou, L. W., Huttenlocher, J., & Lamberts, K.
Affiliations
  • Emory University (US)
  • University of Chicago (US)
  • University of Birmingham (GB)
Venue
Cognitive Psychology
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
1998-08
Volume
36
Issue
3
Pages
203-272
ISSN
0010-0285 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2155670932
Cited by
131
References
126
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 4
FWCI
6.68
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Cognitive Psychology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Categorization, perception, and language
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Cognitive Science and Education Research
Keywords
categorization, individual tracking, event-based learning, representationalism, prototype theory, exemplar theory, connectionist models, statistical learning, memory representation, generalization
MeSH terms
Humans, Learning, Models, Psychological

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