Typicality effects in artificial categories: is there a hemisphere difference?

Brain Lang. 1990 Jul;39(1):90-106. doi: 10.1016/0093-934x(90)90006-3.

Abstract

In category classification tasks, typicality effects are usually found: accuracy and reaction time depend upon distance from a prototype. In this study, subjects learned either verbal or nonverbal dot pattern categories, followed by a lateralized classification task. Comparable typicality effects were found in both reaction time and accuracy across visual fields for both verbal and nonverbal categories. Both hemispheres appeared to use a similarity-to-prototype matching strategy in classification. This indicates that merely having a verbal label does not differentiate classification in the two hemispheres.

Publication types

  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Attention*
  • Concept Formation*
  • Discrimination Learning*
  • Dominance, Cerebral*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Mental Recall
  • Pattern Recognition, Visual*
  • Perceptual Distortion
  • Reaction Time
  • Semantics
  • Transfer, Psychology
  • Verbal Learning