Department of Psychology, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany.
Department of Psychology, University of Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany.
Cogn Emot. 2024 Sep;38(6):963-969. doi: 10.1080/02699931.2024.2335536. Epub 2024 Mar 30.
People prefer prototypical stimuli over atypical stimuli. The dominant explanation for this prototype preference effect is that prototypical stimuli are processed more fluently. However, a more recent account proposes that prototypes are more strongly associated with their category's valence, leading to a reversed prototype preference effect for negative categories. One critical but untested assumption of this category-valence account is that no prototype preference should emerge for entirely neutral categories. We tested this prediction by conditioning categories of dot patterns positively, negatively, or neutrally. In line with previous findings on the category-valence account, prototype preference reversed for negatively conditioned categories. However, prototype preference was similarly strong for positive and neutral categories. These findings imply that prototype preferences do not only reflect a transfer of category valence to exemplars. Instead, the results suggest that prototype preference is a multi-process phenomenon arising from the activated category valence and a fluency-based process. We discuss further implications for theories on fluency and prototype preference.
人们更喜欢原型刺激而非非原型刺激。对于这种原型偏好效应，主流解释认为原型刺激的处理更为流畅。然而，一个更为新颖的观点则认为原型与它们所属类别的情感更为相关，从而导致负类别出现反转的原型偏好效应。这一类别-情感观点有一个关键但未经检验的假设，即完全中性的类别不应出现原型偏好。我们通过对圆点模式的类别进行积极、消极或中性的条件作用来检验这一预测。与类别-情感观点的先前发现一致，负条件类别出现反转的原型偏好。然而，积极和中性类别也同样具有强烈的原型偏好。这些发现表明，原型偏好不仅反映了类别情感向范例的转移。相反，结果表明原型偏好是一种多过程现象，源于激活的类别情感和基于流畅性的过程。我们进一步讨论了对流畅性和原型偏好理论的影响。
