29 European Conference on Visual Perception
St-Petersburg, Russia
20-25 August 2006


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ECVP2006 Abstract




The effect of category learning on the representation of separable shape dimensions: Aspect ratio and curvature
      B Ons    
University of Leuven, Laboratory of Experimental, Psychology, Tiensestraat 102, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium
  bart.ons@psy.kuleuven.be
 
      J Wagemans    
University of Leuven, Laboratory of Experimental
Psychology, Tiensestraat 102, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium
  johan.wagemans@psy.kuleuven.be
 
      H P Op de Beeck    
McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA & Department of Psychology, University of Leuven, Tiensestraat 102, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
  hans.opdebeeck@psy.kuleuven.be
 

Most models of categorization describe categorization in two steps. First, a distance between an object and a category is extracted from a psychological similarity space. Secondly, computations on these distances determine the probability of assigning a new object to a category. In these models, categorization depends on the similarity between stimulus representations. This study examines the reverse influence of categorization on the representation of stimuli. New, artificial 2-D shapes (which looked a bit like chromosomes) were created by combining two separable shape dimensions: aspect ratio and curvature. In the first experiment, subjects completed a categorization task of one hour, based on a one-dimensional criterion (e.g. curvature as relevant) and ignoring the variability on the second dimension (e.g. aspect ratio as irrelevant). A subsequent same-different task showed improved discriminability for the relevant shape dimension (e.g. d’ increase from 2 to 3). Additional experiments will investigate how this learning effect for aspect ratio or curvature generalizes towards other stimulus sets and how a 45°-rotation for the relevant and the irrelevant dimension in the same stimulus space (making the dimensions integral instead of separable) will affect this learning effect.

Support:
IDO/02/004
FWO G.0281.06

Presentation Website:
None.

Keywords:
shape dimension
Categorization
separability

Presentation:
1D, 2D, 3D shape, scene, space
Poster: Monday, 21 August 2006; 10:30-11:30  /  Attended: 10:30-11:30

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