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Categorization: The View from Animal Cognition

Exemplar, prototype, and rule theory have organized much of the enormous literature on categorization. From this theoretical foundation have arisen the two primary debates in the literature—the prototype-exemplar debate and the single system-multiple systems debate. We review these theories and deba...

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Autores principales: Smith, J. David, Zakrzewski, Alexandria C., Johnson, Jennifer M., Valleau, Jeanette C., Church, Barbara A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4931384/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27314392
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/bs6020012
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author Smith, J. David
Zakrzewski, Alexandria C.
Johnson, Jennifer M.
Valleau, Jeanette C.
Church, Barbara A.
author_facet Smith, J. David
Zakrzewski, Alexandria C.
Johnson, Jennifer M.
Valleau, Jeanette C.
Church, Barbara A.
author_sort Smith, J. David
collection PubMed
description Exemplar, prototype, and rule theory have organized much of the enormous literature on categorization. From this theoretical foundation have arisen the two primary debates in the literature—the prototype-exemplar debate and the single system-multiple systems debate. We review these theories and debates. Then, we examine the contribution that animal-cognition studies have made to them. Animals have been crucial behavioral ambassadors to the literature on categorization. They reveal the roots of human categorization, the basic assumptions of vertebrates entering category tasks, the surprising weakness of exemplar memory as a category-learning strategy. They show that a unitary exemplar theory of categorization is insufficient to explain human and animal categorization. They show that a multiple-systems theoretical account—encompassing exemplars, prototypes, and rules—will be required for a complete explanation. They show the value of a fitness perspective in understanding categorization, and the value of giving categorization an evolutionary depth and phylogenetic breadth. They raise important questions about the internal similarity structure of natural kinds and categories. They demonstrate strong continuities with humans in categorization, but discontinuities, too. Categorization’s great debates are resolving themselves, and to these resolutions animals have made crucial contributions.
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spelling pubmed-49313842016-07-08 Categorization: The View from Animal Cognition Smith, J. David Zakrzewski, Alexandria C. Johnson, Jennifer M. Valleau, Jeanette C. Church, Barbara A. Behav Sci (Basel) Review Exemplar, prototype, and rule theory have organized much of the enormous literature on categorization. From this theoretical foundation have arisen the two primary debates in the literature—the prototype-exemplar debate and the single system-multiple systems debate. We review these theories and debates. Then, we examine the contribution that animal-cognition studies have made to them. Animals have been crucial behavioral ambassadors to the literature on categorization. They reveal the roots of human categorization, the basic assumptions of vertebrates entering category tasks, the surprising weakness of exemplar memory as a category-learning strategy. They show that a unitary exemplar theory of categorization is insufficient to explain human and animal categorization. They show that a multiple-systems theoretical account—encompassing exemplars, prototypes, and rules—will be required for a complete explanation. They show the value of a fitness perspective in understanding categorization, and the value of giving categorization an evolutionary depth and phylogenetic breadth. They raise important questions about the internal similarity structure of natural kinds and categories. They demonstrate strong continuities with humans in categorization, but discontinuities, too. Categorization’s great debates are resolving themselves, and to these resolutions animals have made crucial contributions. MDPI 2016-06-15 /pmc/articles/PMC4931384/ /pubmed/27314392 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/bs6020012 Text en © 2016 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Smith, J. David
Zakrzewski, Alexandria C.
Johnson, Jennifer M.
Valleau, Jeanette C.
Church, Barbara A.
Categorization: The View from Animal Cognition
title Categorization: The View from Animal Cognition
title_full Categorization: The View from Animal Cognition
title_fullStr Categorization: The View from Animal Cognition
title_full_unstemmed Categorization: The View from Animal Cognition
title_short Categorization: The View from Animal Cognition
title_sort categorization: the view from animal cognition
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4931384/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27314392
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/bs6020012
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