The problem of similarity assessment in categorization process

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Abstract

In the article different approaches to the role of similarity in categorization process are considered. The following hypothesis is verified in the series of experiments. If some internal human capacity to determine similarity could be considered as the foundation of categorization process then mental structures obtained from the data in categorization (free sorting) task and in similarity judgment task would be identical. The data received call into question the assumption about similarity judgments as the basis of categorization.

General Information

Keywords: categorization, similarity, surface similarity, characteristic features, defining features

Journal rubric: Cognitive Psychology

Article type: scientific article

For citation: Radchikova N.P., Kishtymova E.A. The problem of similarity assessment in categorization process. Eksperimental'naâ psihologiâ = Experimental Psychology (Russia), 2014. Vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 49–63. (In Russ., аbstr. in Engl.)

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Information About the Authors

Nataly P. Radchikova, PhD in Psychology, Leading Researcher of Scientific and Practical Center for Comprehensive Support of Psychological Research «PsyDATA», Moscow State University of Psychology & Education, Chief Specialist of the Laboratory of Biophysics of Excitable Media, Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Biophysics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pushchino;, Moscow, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5139-8288, e-mail: nataly.radchikova@gmail.com

Elizaveta A. Kishtymova, Lecturer, Chair of Methodology and Methods of Psychological Research, Department of Psychology, Belarusian State Pedagogical University named after Maxim Tank, Minsk, Belarus, e-mail: kishtymova@gmail.com

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