Content area
Abstract
The goal of this dissertation was to evaluate the effects of two forms of subjective knowledge on the formation of categories during causal reasoning: knowledge about principles of causation and knowledge of specific goals.
Chapter 2 presented a behavioral experiment testing whether knowing that stimuli shared the same causal role rather than the same location (a causal vs. a non-causal property) increases the likelihood that participants will categorize the stimuli together. The results indicated that it does. This finding suggested that a causal interpretation of an association contributes to category formation. It contradicted accounts of category formation that hold that associations between objects and properties are enough to explain category formation. A causal model account of category formation was discussed according to which expecting that stimuli have causal properties helps people notice patterns that are consistent with this expectation.
Chapter 3 presented a behavioral experiment testing whether participants who were asked to explain different aspects of the same pattern of coincidences (i.e. participants who received different goals) organized the stimuli into different categories. The results indicated that they did. This finding suggested that paying attention to goal-relevant over goal-irrelevant information contributes to category formation. This contradicts the hypothesis that categories reflect information according to its reliability, faithfully mirroring the structure of a pattern of coincidences. Instead, it supported a functionalist account of category formation that suggested that causal categories promote goal-oriented information.
The subjective factors explored in these two studies allow people to form categories autonomously, without relying either on a teacher or on prior knowledge about the objects that eventually become category members. Indeed, wanting to interpret information causally and having learning goals are both independent from the actual stimuli they concern. Together with the characteristics of these stimuli, however, expectations and goals allow people to organize novel environments.
