How we categorize objects is related to how we remember them: The shape bias as a memory bias

Vlach, Haley A.

doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2016.06.013

Cited by 20 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Conversely, our study with US adults was conducted online, and this method may have elicited a stronger shape bias, possibly due to reduced salience in materials, and increased variability in color across participants' monitors. However, it is useful to note that multiple studies have established a shape bias in US adults in a variety of methods that include interaction with real objects (Li, et al, 2009) and presentations on screens (Vlach, 2016). Therefore, while our results are consistent with previous work documenting a shape bias in US adults, the comparison between US and Tsimane' participants should be interpreted cautiously, as it is possible that seeing real-world objects leads to different generalization biases than seeing objects on a screen.…”

Section: Study Limitationssupporting

confidence: 88%

The origins of the shape bias: Evidence from the Tsimane'

Jara‐Ettinger¹,

Lévy²,

Sakel³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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In the US, children often generalize the meaning of new words by assuming that objects with the same shape have the same name. We propose that this shape bias is influenced by children’s exposure to objects of different categories (artifacts and natural kinds), and language to talk about them. We present a cross-cultural study between English speakers in the US and Tsimane’ speakers in the Bolivian Amazon. We found that US children and adults were more likely to generalize novel labels by shape rather than by material or color, relative to Tsimane’ participants. Critically, Tsimane’ children and adults systematically avoided generalizing labels to objects that shared no common features with the novel referent. Our results provide initial evidence that the relative exposure to objects of different kinds and language to talk about them can lead to cross-cultural differences on object name learning.

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Section: Study Limitationssupporting

confidence: 88%

The origins of the shape bias: Evidence from the Tsimane'

Jara‐Ettinger¹,

Lévy²,

Sakel³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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“…One potential trigger for this shift to classification is the onset of language learning. Indeed, as children begin to verbally identify objects they are increasingly better at encoding objects' features (Vlach, 2016;Westermann & Mareschal, 2014), suggesting that the development of language may contribute to a focus on identification (Smith, Jones, & Landau, 1996;Xu & Carey, 1996;Xu et al, 1999). Interestingly, mature nonverbal primates (e.g., gorillas, orangutans, and chimpanzees), who presumably have mastered object individuation, continue to favor spatial information over features (Haun et al, 2006), lending further support to the hypothesis that language may give rise to the shift in focus on classification.…”

Section: Development Of Individuation and Classificationmentioning

confidence: 75%

Spatial and featural cue weighting in children’s developing object representations

Ayzenberg¹,

S²,

Krivoshik³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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To accurately represent an object, it must be individuated from the surrounding objects and then classified with the appropriate category or identity. To this end, adults flexibly weight different visual cues when perceiving objects. However, less is known about whether, and how, the weighting of visual object information changes over development. The current study examined how children use different types of information— spatial (e.g., left/right location) and featural (e.g., color)—in different object tasks. In Experiment 1, we tested whether infants and preschoolers extract both the spatial and featural properties of objects, and, importantly, how these cues are weighted when pitted against each other. We found that infants relied primarily on spatial cues and neglected featural cues. By contrast, preschoolers showed the opposite pattern of weighting, placing greater weight on featural information. In Experiment 2, we tested the hypothesis that the developmental shift from spatial to featural weighting reflects a shift from a priority on object individuation (how many objects) in infancy to object classification (what are the objects) at preschool age. Here, we found that preschoolers weighted spatial information more than features when the task required individuating objects without identifying them, consistent with a specific role for spatial information in object individuation. We discuss the relevance of spatial-featural weighting in relation to developmental changes in children’s object representations.

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“…The early slow learning about a few objects and their names before first birthday may be Lesson 1. The visual pervasiveness of a select set of objects in a cluttered visual field may build strong visual memories for these few things enabling infants them to remember seen things and their heard names [44, 51]. Lesson 2 may use very different training data.…”

Section: Infants Create a Curriculum For Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Developing Infant Creates a Curriculum for Statistical Learning

Smith

Jayaraman

Clerkin

et al. 2018

Trends in Cognitive Sciences

213

174

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New efforts are using head cameras and eye-trackers worn by infants to capture everyday visual environments from the point of view of the infant learner. From this vantage point, the training sets for statistical learning develop as the sensorimotor abilities of the infant develop, yielding a series of ordered datasets for visual learning that differ in content and structure between timepoints but are highly selective at each timepoint. These changing environments may constitute a developmentally ordered curriculum that optimizes learning across many domains. Future advances in computational models will be necessary to connect the developmentally changing content and statistics of infant experience to the internal machinery that does the learning.

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How we categorize objects is related to how we remember them: The shape bias as a memory bias

Cited by 20 publications

References 33 publications

The origins of the shape bias: Evidence from the Tsimane'

The origins of the shape bias: Evidence from the Tsimane'

Spatial and featural cue weighting in children’s developing object representations

The Developing Infant Creates a Curriculum for Statistical Learning

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