Author ORCID Identifier
0000-0002-1897-9590
Date of Award
12-11-2023
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Psychology
First Advisor
Michael J. Beran
Abstract
One important type of category follows a family-resemblance structure. Family-resemblance category members share an overall similarity, but no criterial attributes define all members of the category. Many of the world’s natural categories follow a family-resemblance category structure (e.g., Rosch & Mervis, 1975). We can learn a single family-resemblance category merely by being perceptually exposed to members of the category even when there is no discussion of their category membership (e.g., Homa & Cultice 1984; Palmeri & Flanery 1999; Zabberoni et al., 2021). Research has shown that pre-exposure to category members benefits learning two family-resemblance categories simultaneously (Jackson et al., 2023), suggesting a role for perceptual learning in family-resemblance category learning. However, it is still unclear exactly what underlying mechanism generates this perceptual learning. Therefore, in these studies, I tested the MKM (McLaren, Kate, & Mackintosh) latent inhibition mode, attentional spotlighting, attentional weighting, and representational theories of perceptual learning as explanations of learning family-resemblance categories from exposure in four experiments. I hypothesized that exposure to relevant category members provides benefit to family-resemblance category learning because exposure allows participants to build cortical representations of the prototypes. This is consistent with representational models of perceptual learning.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.57709/36374084
Recommended Citation
Jackson, Brooke, "Investigating Exposure Learning of Family-Resemblance Categories." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2023.
doi: https://doi.org/10.57709/36374084
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