The influence of theoretical knowledge on similarity judgment

Sun, Hong-Mei; Guo-en, Yin

doi:10.1007/s10339-019-00931-0

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…One way that structural or motivational influences may affect attention, therefore, is by influencing perceptions of similarity. In line with work demonstrating that prior knowledge can affect category learning through altered similarity perception ( Sun & Yin, 2020 ; Vandierendonck & Rosseel, 2000 ), we suggest that perceptions of how similar a stimulus is to an existing category on that dimension may become inflated or deflated in line with the perceiver’s schemas and motivations. Although dimensions like race are generally viewed as categorical, perceivers still notice and acknowledge variation in prototypicality within these categories.…”

Section: What Are the Potential Cognitive Mechanisms Through Which Th...supporting

confidence: 85%

Motivated Categories: Social Structures Shape the Construction of Social Categories Through Attentional Mechanisms

Allidina

Cunningham

2023

Pers Soc Psychol Rev

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Social categorization is often framed as the antecedent to stereotyping, with perceivers rationally sorting the social world on the basis of perceptually salient categories before applying biased or motivated beliefs about those categories. Here, we instead suggest that the construction of social categories by individuals is itself subject to motivational influences, such that perceivers will attend to a given dimension of social categorization (e.g., race or gender) insofar as doing so fits within their motivations. Drawing from classic conceptualizations of social structure as the interplay of schemas and resources, we focus on how the motivations for shared schemas and for material benefits or resources may shape attention to social category dimensions. We outline the potential cognitive mechanisms through which these motivations may act on attention, before discussing the implications of this model for individual differences, conceptualizations of social categorization as rational information reduction, and prejudice reduction. Public Abstract Social categories like race and gender often give rise to stereotypes and prejudice, and a great deal of research has focused on how motivations influence these biased beliefs. Here, we focus on potential biases in how these categories are even formed in the first place, suggesting that motivations can influence the very categories people use to group others. We propose that motivations to share schemas with other people and to gain resources shape people’s attention to dimensions like race, gender, and age in different contexts. Specifically, people will pay attention to dimensions to the degree that the conclusions produced from using those dimensions align with their motivations. Overall, we suggest that simply examining the downstream effects of social categorization like stereotyping and prejudice is not enough, and that research should look earlier in the process at how and when we form the categories on which those stereotypes are based.

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Section: What Are the Potential Cognitive Mechanisms Through Which Th...supporting

confidence: 85%

Motivated Categories: Social Structures Shape the Construction of Social Categories Through Attentional Mechanisms

Allidina

Cunningham

2023

Pers Soc Psychol Rev

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“…Besides, the process of similarity judgment is also affected by the theoretical knowledge related to the objects. In the absence of theoretical knowledge, individuals mainly make appearance-based similarity judgment, while individuals will make knowledge-based similarity judgment after mastering theoretical knowledge (H. Sun & Yin, 2019). The results of a bird naming experiment show that bird experts use more specific names to name bird image, while non experts use more general names (Tanaka & Taylor, 1991).…”

Section: Theoretical Model and Hypothesismentioning

confidence: 99%

A Theoretical Model of Similarity Judgment based on Ideas of Form and Spirit

Wen¹,

Luh²,

Wu³

2020

Proceedings of DRS

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Similarity is demonstrably important across many areas of cognition. At present, the main idea is that the similarity of a pair of objects increase with its commonalities and decrease with its difference. However, it's difficult to reasonably explain some counterintuitive situations that often occur. For example, people might find that someone looks similar with a dog, even though most shared features are dissimilar. Inspired by the ideas of form and spirit, we speculate that some key features of objects may have a greater impact on similarity judgment than the others. Therefore, this paper proposed a theoretical model of similarity judgment to illustrate the counterintuitive situation, indicating hierarchical or primary-secondary relationship among shared features between objects, expanding the scope of existing similarity theories. This model has potential applications in many aspects such as the development and protection of intellectual property, product design, game and film industries and so on.

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The influence of theoretical knowledge on similarity judgment

Cited by 2 publications

References 49 publications

Motivated Categories: Social Structures Shape the Construction of Social Categories Through Attentional Mechanisms

Motivated Categories: Social Structures Shape the Construction of Social Categories Through Attentional Mechanisms

A Theoretical Model of Similarity Judgment based on Ideas of Form and Spirit

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