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Tests of the ratio rule in categorization
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Wills, A.J., Reimers, Stian, Stewart, Neil, Suret, Mark and McLaren, I.P.L (2000) Tests of the ratio rule in categorization. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. Section A: Human Experimental Psychology, Vol.53 (No.4). pp. 983-1011. doi:10.1080/02724980050156263 ISSN 0272-4987.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02724980050156263
Abstract
Many theories of learning and memory (e.g. connectionist, associative, rational, exemplar-based) produce psychological magnitude terms as output (i.e. numbers
representing the momentary level of some subjective property). Many theories assume that these numbers may be translated into choice probabilities via the Ratio Rule, a.k.a. the Choice Axiom (Luce, 1959) or the Constant-Ratio Rule (Clarke, 1957). We present two categorization experiments employing artificial, visual, prototype-structured stimuli constructed from twelve symbols positioned on a grid. The Ratio Rule is shown to be
incorrect for these experiments, given the assumption that the magnitude terms for each category are univariate functions of the number of category-appropriate symbols
contained in the presented stimulus. A connectionist winner-take-all model of categorical decision (Wills & McLaren, 1997) is shown to account for our data given the same
assumption. The central feature underlying the success of this model is the assumption that categorical decisions are based on a Thurstonian choice process (Thurstone, 1927,
Case V) whose noise distribution is not double exponential in form.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||
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Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology | ||||
Divisions: | Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Science > Psychology | ||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Learning, psychology of, Memory -- Psychological aspects, Axiom of choice | ||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. Section A: Human Experimental Psychology | ||||
Publisher: | Psychology Press | ||||
ISSN: | 0272-4987 | ||||
Official Date: | November 2000 | ||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | Vol.53 | ||||
Number: | No.4 | ||||
Page Range: | pp. 983-1011 | ||||
DOI: | 10.1080/02724980050156263 | ||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||
Funder: | Economic and Social Research Council (Great Britain) (ESRC), Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (Great Britain) (BBSRC) |
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