Cook Robert G, Smith J David
Department of Psychology, Tufts University, Medford, MA 02155, USA.
Psychol Sci. 2006 Dec;17(12):1059-67. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01833.x.
It has been proposed that human category learning consists of an early abstraction-based stage followed by a later exemplar-memorization stage. To investigate whether similar processing stages extend to category learning in a nonverbal species, we applied a prototype-exception paradigm to investigating pigeon category learning. Five birds and 8 humans learned six-dimensional perceptual categories constructed to include prototypes, typical items, and exceptions. We evaluated the birds' and humans' categorization strategies at different points during learning. Early on in both species, prototype performance improved rapidly as exception performance remained below chance, indicating an initial mastery of the categories' general structure. Later on, exception performance improved selectively and dramatically, indicating exception-item resolution and exemplar memorization. Abstraction- and exemplar-based formal models reinforced these interpretations. The results suggest a psychological transition in pigeon category learning from abstraction- to exemplar-based processing similar to that found in humans.
有人提出，人类的类别学习包括一个早期基于抽象的阶段，随后是一个后期基于范例记忆的阶段。为了研究类似的处理阶段是否也适用于非语言物种的类别学习，我们应用了一种原型-例外范式来研究鸽子的类别学习。五只鸽子和八个人学习了由原型、典型项目和例外构成的六维感知类别。我们在学习过程中的不同时间点评估了鸽子和人类的分类策略。在两个物种学习的早期，随着例外表现仍低于随机水平，原型表现迅速提高，这表明对类别的总体结构有了初步掌握。后来，例外表现选择性地大幅提高，这表明对例外项目的分辨和范例记忆。基于抽象和范例的形式模型强化了这些解释。结果表明，鸽子的类别学习从基于抽象的处理向基于范例的处理存在心理转变，这与在人类中发现的情况类似。
