Spontaneous Knowledge Partitioning in Categorization

• Main Authors: Hsin-An Yu, 俞信安
• Other Authors: Lee-Xieng Yang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2007
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/16844504144714435633

碩士 === 國立中正大學 === 心理學所 === 95 === “Knowledge partitioning” refers to that acquired knowledge may be fractionated into independent parcels that are gated by context. This point of view is supported by many studies. The reason why knowledge partitioning occurs is generally thought to facilitate learning. Kalish, Lewandowsky, and Kruschke (2004) found that in function learning, people can take the attributes of the stimulus as a cue in knowledge partitioning without an extra context. In this study, four experiments were conducted in order to see if context-free knowledge partitioning would occur in categorization. Two different categories in the category space were defined by a sigmoid curve. The part below the curve is called Category A, and the part above is called Category B. In experiment 1, some stimuli close to the horizontal parts of the category boundary were displayed. Participants showed three different classification patterns. One of them was even spontaneous knowledge partitioning. In experiment 2A and 2B, we manipulated two critical stimuli’s positions and found more spontaneous knowledge partitioning successfully. Iin experiment 3, we manipulated another two stimuli to diminish the proportion of the spontaneous knowledge partitioning. In conclusion, the study showed that 1) knowledge partitioning can occur in categorization without any extra context. 2) Knowledge partitioning is subjective. Different participants can generate different types of category representations even if they receive the same stimuli in the same condition. 3) Computer simulation showed that Generalized Context Model can not explain spontaneous knowledge partitioning in the study. Therefore, we adopt the explanation of knowledge partitioning theory.