Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-11T01:57:24.216Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Representation development, perceptual learning, and concept formation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 May 2011

I. P. L. McLaren
Affiliation:
Washington Singer Laboratories, School of Psychology, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4QG, United Kingdom. i.p.l.mclaren@exeter.ac.uka.j.wills@exeter.ac.uk
Andy J. Wills
Affiliation:
Washington Singer Laboratories, School of Psychology, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4QG, United Kingdom. i.p.l.mclaren@exeter.ac.uka.j.wills@exeter.ac.uk
S. Graham
Affiliation:
Clinical Imaging Research Centre, National University of Singapore, Singapore117456. psysg@nus.edu.sg

Abstract

We argue for an example of “core cognition” based on Diamond and Carey's (1986) work on expertise and recognition, which is not made use of in The Origin of Concepts. This mechanism for perceptual learning seems to have all the necessary characteristics in that it is innate, domain-specific (requires stimulus sets possessing a certain structure), and demonstrably affects categorisation in a way that strongly suggests it will influence concept formation as well.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aitken, M. R. F., Bennett, C. H., McLaren, I. P. L. & Mackintosh, N. J. (1996) Perceptual differentiation during categorization learning by pigeons. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes 22:4350.Google Scholar
Carey, S. (2009) The origin of concepts. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diamond, R. & Carey, S. (1986) Why faces are and are not special: An effect of expertise. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 115:107117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fried, L. S. & Holyoak, K. J. (1984) Induction of category distributions: A framework for classification learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology 10(2):234–57.Google ScholarPubMed
Graham, S. & McLaren, I. P. L. (1998) Retardation in human discrimination learning as a consequence of preexposure: Latent inhibition or negative priming? Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 51B:155–72.Google Scholar
McLaren, I. P. L. (1997) Categorisation and perceptual learning: an analogue of the face inversion effect. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 50A:257–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McLaren, I. P. L. & Mackintosh, N.J. (2000) An elemental model of associative learning: I. Latent inhibition and perceptual learning. Animal Learning and Behavior 38(3):211–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McLaren, I. P. L., Leevers, H. L. & Mackintosh, N. J. (1994) Recognition, categorisation and perceptual learning. In: Attention & performance XV, ed. Umilta, C. & Moscovitch, M., pp. 889911. Bradford Books, MIT Press.Google Scholar
Suret, M. B. & McLaren, I. P. L. (2003) Representation and discrimination on an artificial dimension. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 56B:3042.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wills, A. J. & McLaren, I. P. L. (1998) Perceptual learning and free classification. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 51B(3):235–70.Google Scholar
Wills, A. J., Suret, M. B. & McLaren, I. P. L. (2004) The role of category structure in determining the effects of stimulus pre-exposure on categorisation accuracy. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 57B, 7988.CrossRefGoogle Scholar