Idealness and similarity in goal-derived categories: A computational examination

Abstract

The finding that the typicality gradient in goalderived categories is mainly driven by ideals rather than by exemplar similarity has stood uncontested for nearly three decades. Due to the rather rigid earlier implementations of similarity, a key question has remained-that is, whether a more flexible approach to similarity would alter the conclusions. In the present study, we evaluated whether a similarity-based approach that allows for dimensional weighting could account for findings in goal-derived categories. To this end, we compared a computational model of exemplar similarity (the generalized context model; Nosofsky, Journal of Experimental Psychology. General 115: [39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57] 1986) and a computational model of ideal representation (the ideal-dimension model; Voorspoels, Vanpaemel, & Storms, Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 18:1006-114, 2011 in their accounts of exemplar typicality in ten goal-derived categories. In terms of both goodnessof-fit and generalizability, we found strong evidence for an ideal approach in nearly all categories. We conclude that focusing on a limited set of features is necessary but not sufficient to account for the observed typicality gradient. A second aspect of ideal representations-that is, that extreme rather than common, central-tendency values drive typicality-seems to be crucial.

Legitimacy‐as‐Feeling: How Affect Leads to Vertical Legitimacy Spillovers in Transnational Governance

“…Drawing on evidence that categories are defined by goal‐derived or ‘ad hoc’ elaborations of associations between traits (Barsalou, , ) and that they are constructed ‘online’ by relying on pre‐existing knowledge structures (Lakoff, ; Murphy, ), we argue that the categorical prototype for TGSs and other network‐based forms does not represent a summary representation of comparable members. Rather, TGSs are legitimized as a category through intuiters' appraisals of whether affiliates correspond to an abstract ‘ideal’, which describes sets of traits that intuiters regard as desirable (Barsalou, ; Burnett et al., ; Lakoff, ; Voorspoels et al., ).…”

Chapter 3. Categories at the interface of cognition and action

“…- -----------------------------------------------INSERT TABLE 2 ABOUT HERE - -----------------------------------------------Much subsequent work, using more sophisticated and ambitious methods, has confirmed these initial results (e.g., Borkenau, 1990;Chaplin, John, & Goldberg, 1988;Loken & Ward, 1990;Lynch, Coley, & Medin, 2000;Read, Jones, & Miller, 1990;Voorspoels, Storms, & Vanpaemel, 2013;Voorspoels, Vanpaemel, & Storms, 2010. Perhaps most surprisingly, ideals tend to emerge as not only important determinants of typicality, but often as the most important determinants, even for taxonomic categories.…”

Revealing Criterial Vagueness in Inconsistencies

“…The lack of a stability difference might be an indication that the ad hoc categories we selected should be considered goal-derived categories: ad hoc categories that have become well-established in memory, for example, through frequent use (Barsalou, 1985). The observation that one and the same individual may use different criteria for recruiting items that fulfill the category’s goal, would then be an indication that people sometimes entertain competing goals—such as traveling comfortably or fast between Brussels and London—the prominence of which might change from one occasion to the next (see also Voorspoels, Storms, & Vanpaemel, 2013, who showed that individuals can provide multiple ideal characteristics of goal-derived categories).…”