Inferring Properties when Categorization is Uncertain: A Feature-Conjunction Account
Brett K. Hayes, Chris Ruthven, Ben Rhodri Newell · eScholarship (California Digital Library) · 2007
Two studies examined how people make feature inferences about exemplars whose category membership is uncertain.Participants studied categorized exemplars, were given a feature of a novel item and asked to make predictions about other features of the item.Feature base rates were manipulated to test a series of possible inference strategies.Both studies found evidence for a feature conjunction strategy in which predictions are based on comparisons with exemplars similar to the test item.In both studies the majority of participants disregarded category membership when making feature predictions.