This paper examines inductive reasoning among experts in a domain. Three types of tree experts (landscapers, taxonomists, and parks maintenance personnel) completed three reasoning tasks. In Experiment 1, participants inferred which of two novel diseases would affect “more other kinds of trees” and provided justifications for their choices. Experiment 2 used modified instructions, asking which ...

The present study explores the ability of 3.5-and 4.5-year-olds to use a causal property (making a machine light up and play music) to build categories of objects, and attach a name to them. First, this use is assessed in the presence or absence of simple perceptual information (color and shape) leading to a conflicting categorization. Second, the role of language is evaluated by varying how th...

Causal Knowledge and the Confusion Between Input and Output Distinguishing between a singularist and a regularity account of causal reasoning, White (2005) writes, The operation of a causal power is not a matter of probability or frequency. . . . In fact a power might never be exercised at all. . . . People can ascribe a causal power to a thing on the basis of knowledge of its nature even if th...

I present LIBPHON, a nonparametric regression-based model of phonological acquisition that induces a generalised and productive pattern of vowel harmony—including opaque and transparent neutrality—on the basis of simplified formant data. The model quickly learns to generate harmonically correct morphologically complex forms to which it has not been exposed. 1 Explaining phonological patterns Ho...

The idea that people may represent categories in terms of simple logical rules dates back to the very beginnings of research on concept identification in cognitive psy-The rule hypothesis carries a good deal of intuitive appeal. An important purpose of categorization is to reduce the complexity of mental processing by organizing distinct objects into classes and then dealing with the classes as...

Wells, H. (1963). Effects of transfer and problem structure in disjunctive concept formation. Table 2. Mean number of trials required by POSTHOC In POSTHOC, we have focused on how prior knowledge influences learning rates and we have so far ignored other information used by human learners (e.g., perceptual salience of features, Bower & Trabasso, 1968). As a consequence, POSTHOC is not intended ...

I present LIBPHON, a nonparametric regression-based model of phonological acquisition that induces a generalised and productive pattern of vowel harmony—including opaque and transparent neutrality—on the basis of simplified formant data. The model quickly learns to generate harmonically correct morphologically complex forms to which it has not been exposed. 1 Explaining phonological patterns Ho...

1 Over the course of the Medin Festschrift, we heard a lot about Doug's intellectual qualities and contributions. Certainly these are impressive and significant. Nevertheless, one thing that I've learned from adopting the embodied perspective on cognition is that this perspective often leads one to notice new things not seen from other perspectives. Given the strong cognitive orientation of mos...

A fundamental aspect of human intelligence is the ability to represent and reason about relations. Examples of relational thinking include our ability to appreciate analogies between different objects or events (Gentner, 1983; Holyoak & Thagard, 1995), our ability to apply abstract rules in novel situations (e.g., Smith, Langston & Nisbett, 1992), our ability to understand and learn language (e...

Similarity has been proposed as a fundamental principle underlying mental object representations and capable of supporting cognitive-level tasks such as categorization. However, much of the research has considered connections between similarity and categorization for tasks performed using a single perceptual modality. Considering similarity and categorization within a multimodal context opens u...