Off-campus UMass Amherst users: To download campus access theses, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your UMass Amherst user name and password.
Non-UMass Amherst users: Please talk to your librarian about requesting this thesis through interlibrary loan.
Theses that have an embargo placed on them will not be available to anyone until the embargo expires.
Access Type
Open Access
Document Type
thesis
Degree Program
Psychology
Degree Type
Master of Science (M.S.)
Year Degree Awarded
2009
Month Degree Awarded
February
Keywords
Category Construction, Modeling
Abstract
Three experiments examined category creation with no feedback and minimal feedback by using modeling to determine number of dimensions subjects attended to. In the first experiment, subjects were shown a series of two-dimensional objects with no training and no feedback and asked to categorize the stimuli. Subjects in experiment 1 mostly attended to one dimension. In the second experiment, subjects shown similar two-dimensional stimuli but were given minimal feedback. Significantly more subjects in experiment 2 attended to both dimensions. In the third experiment, subjects were trained on three related two-dimensional categories and then asked to categorize four. Performance in experiment 3 was similar to that of experiment 1, where subjects mainly attended to 1 dimension. These findings indicate that a more natural feedback structure would help subjects create categories that resemble those used in everyday life.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7275/682873
First Advisor
Andrew L. Cohen