conceptual interrelatedness and caricatures.docVIP

Conceptual Interrelatedness and Caricatures Robert L. Goldstone Indiana University Mark Steyvers University of California, Irvine Brian J. Rogosky Indiana University Running head: CARICATURES AND PROTOTYPES Word count: 6,244 Abstract Concepts are interrelated to the extent that the characterization of one concept is influenced by another concept, and isolated to the extent that the characterization of one concept is independent of other concepts. The relative categorization accuracy of the prototype and caricature of a concept can be used as a measure of concept interrelatedness. The prototype is the central tendency of a concept, whereas a caricature deviates from the concept’s central tendency in the direction opposite to the central tendency of other acquired concepts. The prototype is predicted to be relatively well categorized when a concept is relatively independent of other concepts, but the caricature is predicted to be relatively well categorized when a concept is highly related to other concepts. Support for these predictions comes from manipulations of the labels given to simultaneously acquired concepts (Experiment 1) and the order of categories during learning (Experiment 2). Conceptual Interrelatedness and Caricatures Concepts seem to be simultaneously connected to each other and to the external world. On the one hand, concepts seem to gain their meaning by the role that they play within a network of concepts (Collins Quillian, 1969; Field, 1977). The notion of a “conceptual web” by which concepts all mutually define one another has been highly influential in all of the major fields that comprise cognitive science, including linguistics (Saussure, 1915/1959), computer science (Lenat Feigenbaum, 1991), psychology (Landauer Dumais, 1997), and philosophy (Block, 1999). However, there is also dissatisfaction in some quarters with the circularity of this conceptual web account. Researchers have argued that concepts must be grounded in the